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TRANSMISSION. 


TRANSMISSION; 

—  /^ 


OB, 


VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 


THROUGH 


THE   MOTHER. 


BY 
GEORGIANA    B.    KIRBY 


NEW    EDITION, 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED. 


NEW  YORK: 

FOWLER  &  WELLS,    PUBLISHERS, 
753   BROADWAY. 
1882. 


&tn5tit&* 


COPYRIGHT,    1877,  BV 

£.  ft    Ml  ELLS  &  COMPANY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IN  the  following  pa*ges  it  is  my  wish  to  impress  on 
women  the  grave  truth,  than  which  none  can  have  more 
importance,  that  with  them,  with  the  mother,  rests  the 
greater  power  to  mould  for  good  or  ill,  for  power  or 
weakness,  for  beauty  or  deformity,  the  characters  of 
her  unborn  children,  and  that  with  power  comes  the 
responsibility  for  its  use. 

Laying  down  a  few  self-evident  propositions  I  shall 
illustrate  the  same  by  facts  which  have  come  under  my 
own  immediate  notice  during  a  period  of  nearly  forty 
years,  simply  changing  in  each  case  the  names  of  per- 
sons and  locality. 

The  subject  is  by  no  means  a  new  or  original  one. 
The  principles  involved  are  found  scattered  throughout 
all  the  journals  which  embody  modern  thought,  and 
even  find  their  way,  accompanied  by  much  contradic- 
tion, into  our  lighter  literature.  Yet  it  is  certainly  not 
universally  understood  that  on  the  mother's  state  of 
mind  and  body  during  pregnancy  depend  such  vital  in- 


6  INTRODUCTION". 

terests.  The  shadow  thrown  on  the  subject  by  false 
modesty  keeps  the  masses  in  ignorance  and  arrests  the 
upward  progress  of  the  race. 

The  mother's  office  was,  and  is  yet,  by  the  majority  held 
to  be  a  secondary  one  and  comparatively  unimportant. 
"  She  merely  nourishes  the  germ  given  by  the  father  " 
is  the  common  supposition.  What  singular  infatuation 
is  this  when  anatomy  shows  that  the  ova  or  eggs  exist 
in  the  mother,  and  that  the  material  supplied  by  the 
father  vivifies  them  ! 

In  ancient,  as  well  as  modern,  times  it  was  admitted 
that  during  the  period  of  gestation  the  mother  was 
keenly  sensitive  to  hideous  impressions,  and  was 
through  this  equal  to  the  production  of  deformity  and 
monstrosity.  It  seems  strange  that  the  converse  of  this 
did  not  suggest  itself,  so  that  her  sensibility  could  have 
been  tested  for  the  creation  of  beauty  and  symmetry. 

It  was  also  seen  that  the  pregnant  woman  could  affect 
the  temper,  the  disposition  of  her  child  by  yielding  to 
angry  emotions,  but  she  was  not  credited  with  the 
ability  to  convey  a  serenity  and  sweetness  of  nature 
surpassing  her  own. 

Through  all  the  dark  ages  that  have  preceded  us, 
woman  has  known  herself  a  slave  with  less  questioning 
as  to  the  rightf  ulness  of  the  position  awarded  her  by  man 
than  she  is  sensible  of  to-day.  This  was  the  inevitable 
order  of  development  for  primitive  man.  That  the 


INTRODUCTION.  1 

unjust  domination  continues  is  but  another  proof  of 
how  unwillingly  usurped  power  is  relinquished. 

The  slave  woman  respects  her  master,  not  herself. 
The  children  she  has  borne  have  been  the  children  of 
their  father,  not  of  their  mother.  Darwin  declares 
that  "  qualities  induced  by  circumstances  inhere  in  that 
•sex  on  which  the  circumstances  operated,"  passing  by 
the  opposite  sex  born  of  the  same  mothers.  Thus 
women  have  given  birth  to  independent  sons  and  sub- 
servient daughters. 

In  civilized  lands  it  is  now  almost  universally  ad- 
mitted that  conditions  produce  a  race.  The  included 
truth  that  conditions,  governed  by  invariable  law,  pro- 
duce each  individual  of  that  race  is  scarcely  recognized 
by  the  most  enlightened,  so  deeply  seated  in  the  minds 
of  men  is  the  belief  in  woman's  inferiority  and  unim- 
portance in  the  realm  of  causes. 

"  MY  children  will  represent  ME,"  is  the  unexpressed 
thought  of  nearly  .every  father  until  the  baseless  as- 
sumption is  slowly  dispelled  by  the  irresponsible  medi- 
ocre children  before  him.  Men,  and  women  too,  are 
astonished  and  perplexed  when  the  superficial,  but  pleas- 
ing  young  wife  of  the  man  of  genius  proves  the  mother 
of  dull  boys  and  girls  without  possibilities.  Still  more 
incomprehensible  -to  them  is  the  mysterious  Providence 
which  has  awarded  the  vicious  or  deficient  child  to  the 
excellent  and  sensible  couple,  and  presented  the  laay 


8  mTRODUCTION. 

and  disorderly  one  with  a  delicate  saint,  or  an  inventor, 
When  the  education,  the  training,  had  been  exactly 
alike  for  all  the  children,  why  did  the  second  or  the  sixth 
o'ertop  the  others  in  talent,  high  ambition,  nobler 
presence  ?  If  the  exceptional  child  were  dull,  the  mother 
was  held  measurably  responsible;  if  it  were  brilliant 
and  beautiful,  the  qualities  were  traced  back  to  some 
great-grandfather  or  grand-aunt  of  the  father's. 

At  length,  if  almost  unwillingly,  we  have  found  the 
right  track.  In  the  early  part  of  this  century  it  began 
slowly  to  dawn  on  the  minds  of  the  most  enlightened 
men  that  women  were  in  a  truer  sense  the  mothers  of 
the  race  than  had  been  previously  supposed,  and 
through  the  influence  of  these  pioneers  in  the  world  of 
ideas,  woman  begins  to  realize  her  great  maternal 
power.  With  this  knowledge,  and  the  higher  educa- 
tion now  offered  her  in  the  schools,  her  character  will 
broaden,  her  thoughts  enlarge.  Subserviency,  personal 
gossip,  and  paltry  rivalries  will  no  more  belong  to  her 
than  to  her  brother.  Courage  and  sincerity  will  belong 
to  both,  equally  with  purity  and  gentleness  may  we 
hope. 


TRANSMISSION; 

OR, 

VARIATION  OF  CHARACTER  THROUGH  THE  MOTHER. 


All  nature,  including  human  nature,  is  governed  by 
immutable  law. 

All  variation  of  character,  physical  and  mental,  takes 
place  in  foetal  life. 

To  the  sensitiveness  conferred  by  nature  on  the 
child-bearing  woman  is  due  her  superior  capacity  to 
improve  or  degrade  the  race.  To  her  varied  mental, 
emotional,  and  physical  conditions  during  her  periods  of 
gestation  are  due  the  widely  different  characters  of  the 
children  born  of  the  sa^me  parents. 

Every  quality,  or  its  absence,  in  man  or  woman  is 
there,  or  is  wanting,  by  reason  of  conditions  afforded 
or  withheld  for  its  incarnation  through  the  parents. 

The  compass  and  tone  of  each  individual  is  abso- 
lutely decided  before  birth. 


10  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

• 

The  faculties  actively  used  by  the  mother  during 
pregnancy,  rather  than  those  lying  latent  and  part  of  her 
original  character,  will  be  found  prominent  in  her  off- 
spring. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  children  of  youthful, 
immature  parents  will  be  inferior  to  those  of  the  fully 
developed. 

A  marriage  may,  in  itself,  be  perfect  in  every  re- 
spect, yet  owing  to  violation  of  natural  or  spiritual 
law  by  the  parents,  the  offspring  may  be  inferior  to 
either  or  both. 

A  marriage  may  be  very  imperfect,  and  the  parties 
to  it  very  imperfect  characters,  yet,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  happily  elevating  conditions  surrounding  and, 
as  it  were,  pressing  in  on  the  mother,  the  children  will 
"be  superior  to  both  parents. 

Education  may  modify,  but  never  overrule  inherited 
defects. 


CONCEPTION. 

VERY  much  depends  on  the  moment  of  union  which 
precedes  conception.  Never  run  the  risk  of  conception 
when  you  are  sick  or  over-tired  or  unhappy ;  or  when 
your  husband  is  sick,  or  recovering  from  sickness,  ex 
hausted,  or  depressed,  or  when  you  are  not  in  full  sym 
pathy  with  him,  or  when  the  children  already  yours 
claim  for  their  welfare  your  entire  strength  and  time. 
For  the  bodily  condition  of  the  child,  its  vigor  and 
magnetic  qualities,  are  much  affected  by  the  conditions 
ruling  this  great  moment.  Independent  of  the  mutual, 
spiritual  estate,  the  material  supplied  by  the  father  for 
the  vitalizing  of  the  ovum,  represents  his  THEN  state  of 
being,  and  will  continue  to  represent  it  in  the  life  it  has 
helped  to  organize.  If,  therefore,  this  communicated 
principle  be  wanting  in  vitality  or  diseased,  physical 
perfection  in  the  child  is  not  to  be  expected.  This 
finest  secretion  of  the  man's  whole  being — this  subtle 


12  ,          VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

essence  of  his  nature,  which  is  both  spiritual  and  phys- 
ical— should  express  his  best  possible  condition.  After 
this  he  can  only  affect  the  child  indirectly  through  his 
influence  on  the  mother's  mind. 

The  more  highly-organized  the  mother,  the  more 
child-bearing  exhausts  her,  because  she  is  drained  of 
her  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces.  She,  therefore, 
requires  longer  periods  of  rest  and  recuperation  than 
the  healthy,  animal  woman  who  can  bear  a  child  e very- 
two  years  for  many  succeeding  years,  and  retain  health 
and  vigor. 

Many  of  the  most  lovely,  most  charming,  and  alto- 
gether admirable  women,  become  the  inmates  of  insane 
asylums  from  having  maternity  thrust  on  them  at  too 
near  periods  of  time. 

For  a  child  to  be  well  born,  his  parents  should  be 
happily  mated  and  in  good  health ;  the  coming  together 
should  be  mutual,  and  with  a  willingness,  if  not  a  desire, 
for  parentage.  Quite  infrequent  relations,  if  any,  should 
take  place  up  to  the  fourth  month.  This  should,  of 
course,  be  left  entirely  to  the  wife's  decision — to  her 
feeling  of  what  is  right  and  best  for  fter.  I  have 
known  wives  very  desirous  of  having  children,  who,  on 
finding  themselves  pregnant,  could  not  help  turning 
with  glad  affection  to  the  father  of  the  child.  Nothing 
is  as  yet  proved  on  this  head,  and  there  is  no  telling 
what  magnetisms  may  or  may  not  be  furnished  the 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  13 

embryo  at  this  early  stage.  Nature  in  the  woman  re- 
fuses to  entertain  the  thought  of  sexual  commerce 
after  the  fourth  month. 

SLEEPING. 

There  are  many  reasons  which  make  it  most  unadvis 
able  for  husband  and  wife  to  occupy  the  same  bed,  and 
growing  physiological  knowledge  will  sooner  or  later 
effect  a  change  in  this,  as  in  many  other  of  our  habits. 
In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  desirable  in  this  way  to 
equalize  the  magnetism  of  the  two  parties.  Part  of 
the  mutual  attraction  is  thus  lost.  Then,  sleep  is  not 
so  wholly  undisturbed  and  refreshing  as  when  one  is 
quite  alone.  But  most  important  of  all,  the  mere  fact 
of  contact  often  arouses  the  animal  when  the  will  and 
judgment  are  asleep,  and  a  base  union  takes  place,  which 
is  followed  by  regret,  shame,  and  bodily  weakness. 

A  late  writer  on  marriage,  parentage,  and  kindred 
subjects  takes  the  ground  that  the  sexual  attraction 
exists  solely  for  the  production  of  offspring.  He  gives 
the  impression  that,  unless  the  minds  of  the  parties  con- 
cerned are  filled  with  the  desire  for  parentage,  the  phys- 
ical union  is  wholly  sensual  and  unjustifiable.  Here  the 
experience  of  the  very  best  men  and  women  who  should 
certainly  give  us  a  standard,  if  one  is  possible,  goes 
contrary  to  this  view,  and  certainly  we  ought  not  to 
discard  this  testimony  for  that  of  the  unspiritual  ani- 


[TJJUTB&SXTrl 

y^>  -          ***••*  «t 


14:  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

mal  world,  especially  when  this  varies  from  the  human 
in  being  polygamous,  and  each  season  choosing  another 
mate ;  neither  can  it  be  supposed  that  the  animal  of  in- 
tuition creates  offspring. 

Then  again,  unless  denied  children,  a  man  never  has 
a  thought  of  parentage  in  that  all-absorbing  moment. 
It  is  his  wife — the  woman  he  adores,  to  whom  he  is 
drawn  as  by  an  invisible  magnet,  and  children  originat- 
ing in  this  tender  and  impassioned  embrace  will  be  thus 
far  magnetic  and  well-born  children.  A  desire  for  par- 
entage is  as  good  as  the  love  of  woman,  no  doubt ;  but 
since  it  is  in  the  order  of  nature  for  a  man  to  be  con- 
cerned for  the  woman  alone,  should  we  interfere  ? 

With  regard  to  the  best  hour  in  the  twenty -four  for 
originating  a  new  life,  I  differ  from  most  authors.  Love 
is  most  private  and  interior,  shunning  vulgar  observa- 
tion and  the  glaring  light,  therefore  the  quiet  hours  of 
early  morning  best  bent  the  expression  of  it. 

Not  many  hundred  years  will  elapse  before  the  earth 
will  be  sufficiently  populated.  Then  large  families  of 
children  will  be  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing,  and  par- 
ents will  be  obliged  to  limit  their  powers  of  reproduc- 
tion to  two  children  only.  Will  they  then  reduce  the 
exercise  of  the  amative  faculty  to  two  occasions  2  We 
have  yet  much  to  discover  on  this  head. 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  15 


AMATIVENESS. 

Since  in  the  minds  of  many  good  and  otherwise  in- 
telligent women  much  confusion  exists  respecting  the 
actual  marriage  or  "  sexual  union,"  it  is  desirable  that 
we  make  some  remarks  on  that  organ  of  the  brain  on 
which  rests  conjugal  love — namely,  Amativeness. 

No  other  single  organ  of  the  brain  has  so  command- 
ing an  influence  on  the  whole  nature  as  this  much-slan- 
dered faculty.  The  very  word  itself  is  held  attaint. 
Yet  it  is  this  power,  in  woman  as  well  as  man,  that 
gives  beauty  and  symmetry  to  form  and  feature,  grace 
and  sweetness  to  manners  and  voice,  and  sympathy  and 
charity  to  the  soul.  All  the  heroism  that  has  redeemed 
the  past  from  utter  and  disgusting  barbarism,  has  sprung 
out  of  the  love  of  man  for  woman ;  not  the  Friendship, 
but  the  Love,  whose  completest  expression — that  which 
most  softened  and  refined  the  man,  strengthened  and 
sustained  the  woman — was  the  perfect  union  of  soul  and 
body  demanded  by  itself.  And  spite  of  its  gross  and 
cruel  record,  amativeness  is  to-day,  as  it  always  has 
been,  the  principal  guarantee  for  the  higher  develop- 
ment of  humanity.  Without  it  genius  is  impossible, 
capacity  for  large  enjoyments,  attractiveness,  a  segment 
of  the  circle  is  wanting,  making  all  the  rest  incomplete 
tnd  defective. 

Because  of  the  hitherto  undue  activity  of  this  organ 


16  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

and  its  apparent  fickleness,  many  philosophers  have 
given  friendship  a  higher  place  than  love  in  the  econ- 
omy of  human  life.  But  let  us  extinguish  this  passion 
in  the  heart,  leaving  friendship  to  its  widest  experience, 
and  we  should  soon  sink  down  to  the  level  of  the  Chi- 
nese, whose  brutal  contempt  for  woman  expressed  in 
every  fable  and  proverb,  and  illustrated  in  the  national 
countenance,  precludes  to  them  all  advancement. 

Man  appears  to  have  been  superendowed  with  ama- 
tiveness  since  first  he  stood  erect.  Inferior  intellect 
and  strong  passions  characterized  the  primitive  man. 
And  as  the  head  of  the  modern  man  still  awaits  the 
arch,  he  continues  to  be  intemperate  on  this  side  of  his 
nature,  and  to  dominate  woman  in  such  degree  as  suits 
his  pleasure.  Over-indulgence  is  followed  by  a  sense  of 
shame,  of  disgust ;  and  as  this  habit  of  excess  was  and 
is  universal,  man  has  learned  to  separate  this  passion 
from  what  he  calls  his  higher  nature,  and  brand  it  as 
degrading,  sensual,  shameful.  The  helpless,  the  willing 
subjection  of  woman  in  marriage  has  served  to  lower 
yet  more  the  character  of  the  relation. 

The  Church  has  taught  that  marriage  is  a  sensual 
estate,  including  one  major-general  and  one  private. 
A  profound  contempt  for  nature  is  inherited  with  the 
blood,  and  is  confirmed  in  us  by  experience. 

Now,  science  and  philosophy  prove  that  sin,  evil, 
wickedness,  mean  merely  a  want  of  balance  among 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  1 

faculties  in  themselves  good.  How  weak  is  a  man 
without  sufficient  firmness,  yet  how  unamenable  is  he 
who  possesses  too  large  a  share.  How  valuable  is  ac- 
quisitiveness with  conscience  and  the  reasoning  powers 
fully  developed.  Without  the  latter,  acquisitiveness 
purloins  cash  and  jewelry. 

Excess  of  amativeness — the  faculty  most  blindly 
abused  hitherto — has  worked  most  cruel  wrong.  Goaded 
by  stimulants  it  has  murdered  its  willing  slave,  sought 
satisfaction  in  promiscuous  relations  which  destroy  con- 
jugal love,  changing  it  to  lust, — levied  tax  on  the  other 
organs  of  the  brain,  dragging  them  with  itself  to  a 
shameful  death. 

The  difference  between  Love  and  Lust  is  the  differ- 
ence between  heaven  and  hell.  Love  seeks  only  the 
happiness  of  the  being  loved,  and  is  as  refined  in  its 
most  private  as  in  its  public  demeanor.  Lust  cares  only 
for  selfish,  animal  gratification,  without  regard  to  the 
slave  who  gives  enforced  consent. 

That  an  act  absolutely  necessary  to  the  continuance 
of  the  race,  animal,  human,  and  vegetable,  and  the 
principle  of  which  governs  even  the  mineral  world, 
should  be  in  itself,  and  under  right  conditions,  consid- 
ered coarse,  is  but  evidence  of  our  own  ignorance. 
We  reason  a  priori  that  when  the  entire  being  consents, 
the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  affectional,  the  act  of  union 
is  as  pure  in  its  character  as  the  blossoming  of  the  lilj 


18  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

or  the  rose.  The  pure,  unselfish  love  of  a  noble  man, 
when  carried  to  its  ultimate  with  a  happily  responsive 
wife,  should  be  as  free  from  shame  as  the  opening 
violet.  Emotion  is  as  divine  as  thought.  Could  it  be 
necessary,  or  even  possible,  for  a  merely  sensual  act  to 
originate  a  being  like  Margaret  Fuller,  or  Hawthorne, 
or  the  author  of  Shakespeare's  plays  ?  He  who  replies 
in  the  affirmative  is  unbalanced  and  unnatural. 

To  common  observation  the  more  reverent  and 
kindly  demeanor  of  the  lad  as  he  approaches  puberty 
demonstrates  the  refining,  ameliorating  nature  of  con- 
jugal love. 

The  radiant  countenance  of  the  modest  wife,  the 
harmonious  faces  of  the  chaste  and  loving  pair,  justify 
their  lives. 

Marriage  is  a  partnership  for  the  higher  development 
of  each  party,  and  the  continuance  of  the  race. 

Under  the  past  regime  the  highly  organized  and 
more  individualized  American  woman  has  had  her 
capacity  for  conjugal  emotion  almost  annihilated.  And 
this  constantly  repeats  itself  in  her  children  as  the 
abused  mother  transmits  to  her  son  the  abnormal  pas- 
sions of  his  father,  and  to  her  daughter  her  own  feeble, 
outraged  conjugal  capacity. 

This  state  of  things  will  continue  as  long  as  women 
grow  up  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  their  own  being ;  as 
long  as  mothers  bring  up  their  sons  and  daughters  in 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  19 

absolute  ignorance  of  what  is  right  and  wrong  in 
marriage — the  mother  thinking  she  is  modest  and  re- 
fined when  she  blushes  before  the  honest  facts  of  nat- 
ure. 

What  father  instructs  his  son  before  marriage  as  to 
his  behavior  under  that  most  sacred  bond?  "What 
mother  advises  with  her  daughter,  assuring  her  that  she 
is  to  be  the  judge  and  regulator  in  her  private  life  with 
her  husband  ?  Too  often  the  health  of  both  is  im- 
paired, and  the  mutual  attraction  destroyed,  because 
knowledge  came  too  late.  Instead  of  this,  the  young 
wife  should  be  proud  to  say,  "  My  mother  taught  me 
that  this  relation  should  take  place  very  seldom.  We 
shall  be  less  happy  if  we  are  intemperate."  The  man 
who  married  her  because  he  loved  and  admired  her, 
would  willingly  be  guided  by  her  to  a  true  continence. 
As  it  is,  she  evades  the  responsibility,  and  abandons 
BOU!  and  body  to  the  undisciplined  will  of  one  as  ig- 
norant of  law  as  herself.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  men,  and 
women  too,  persuade  themselves  that  subserviency  in 
woman  is  lovely  as  in  a  man  it  is  contemptible. 

DESIRES   AND   FANCIES. 

A  superstition  is-common  among  the  ignorant  that 
every  whim,  every  craving  of  the  pregnant  woman 
should  be  gratified,  or  the  child  will  be  "marked."  I 
once  heard  of  a  woman  who,  shortly  before  her  con- 


20  VAKIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

finement,  insisted  on  having  a  pint  of  whisky,  and  be- 
cause it  was  thought  best  to  give  her  only  half  a  pint, 
the  child  was  never  satisfied  and  drank  himself  to 
death. 

It  is  true  that  the  very  great  change  in  the  system, 
the  forces  now  specially  drawn  to  the  womb  which  be- 
fore were  equally  distributed  throughout  the  body, 
leaves  the  stomach  often  in  a  very  delicate  condition, 
needing  more  acid  or  less,  more  flesh  and  less  vegetable 
diet,  or  the  reverse,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  there 
should  certainly  be  no  pains  spared  in  providing  the 
mother  with  the  food  that  she  can  relish  and  digest,  or 
in  her  yielding  to  her  innocent  and  harmless  fancies. 
The  first  months  are  often  wearisome  and  depressing. 
She  feels  restless  and  unsettled,  and  should  be  treated 
with  patient  sympathy  even  if  she  seems  a  little  un- 
reasonable. 

But  the  patient  should  never  resign  her  own  judg- 
ment and  conscience.  Gross  feeding,  excess  of  meats, 
gravies,  pastry,  wine,  etc.,  should  be  avoided  if  desired. 
Over-eating  is  nearly  as  bad  as  over-drinking,  and  a 
sense  of  repletion  after  meals  should  be  a  warning  that 
the  intemperance  must  not  be  repeated.  It  is  very 
plain  that  if  the  pregnant  woman  used  her  will  in  de- 
nying herself  that  which  she  knew  to  be  unwholesome, 
or  in  excess  of  sufficient,  the  child  would  be  more 
likely  to  inherit  self-control.  The  true  mother  will 


1HROTJUH    THE   MOTHER.  21 

have  constant  reference  to  the  well-being  of  the  child 
she  is  bearing,  and  she  will  have  ample  reward. 

BIRTH-MARKS. 

Birth-marks,  whether  unimportant  in  character,  or 
amounting  to  deformity,  are  to  be  referred  not  so  much 
to  the  first  impression  made  on  the  mother's  mind,  as 
to  her  subsequent  and  frequent  reproduction  of  the 
image.  The  unfurnished  mind  of  the  illiterate  woman 
seizes  on  and  retains  the  ugly  or  grotesque  picture, 
which  another  rich  in  thought  and  experience  would 
have  dismissed  at  once.  Thus  we  see  club-feet,  stra- 
bismus, and  other  physical  defects  almost  confined  to 
the  lower  orders  of  the  people. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  mother  should  turn.,  away  on 
principle  from  the  unpleasant  object  or  circumstance, 
and  occupy  herself  by  an  exercise  of  her  will  with 
something  agreeable.  If  she  acts  thus,  all  will  be  safe. 

DEFICIENT   CHILDREN. 

The  union  of  young  persons,  affectionate,  but  unin- 
tellectual  and  ignorant  of  law,  is  followed,  not  unfre- 
quently,  by  more  or  less  deficiency  in  the  first  child. 
No  restraint  is  put  on  the  passions,  as  it  is  believed  that 
after  the  legal  ceremony  has  taken  place  any  amount 
of  indulgence  is  permissible. 

More  cases  of  deficiency  are  found  in  the  families  of 


22  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

the  rich,  and  of  the  brutalized  and  ignorant  poor,  than 
in  households  whose  moderate  circumstances  necessarily 
force  some  domestic  duties  on  the  wife.  The  simplest 
household  labors  involve  the  exercise  of  calculation, 
perception,  order,  and  judgment,  not  to  mention  the 
good  to  the  body  of  the  exercise  of  many  sets  of  mus- 
cles. Consider,  then,  the  loss  to  the  unborn  where 
wealth  has  secured  abundant  service  and  the  pregnant 
condition  is  made  an  excuse  for  indolence  and  over-in- 
dulgence ! 

If  the  young  couple  have  planned  their  life  wisely  ; 
if  they  are  hospitably  inclined,  it  may  be  musical  and 
social  at  once,  and  the  wife  especially  take  some  kindly 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  those  less  favored  than  them- 
selves, all  will  be  safe  so  far  as  the  intellect  is  concerned ; 
and  if  the  delicate  consideration  and  courtesy  felt  and 
shown  before  marriage  by  each  to  the  other  continue 
after  the  union  is  consummated,  a  happy  temperament, 
a  pleasing  natural  manner  may  be  expected  for  the 
child. 

But  if  these  conditions  do  not  exist,  the  first  child 
will  be  greatly  inferior  to  those  that  follow  it,  since  the 
most  indolent  and  selfish  mother  will  expend  some 
thought  on  her  own  little  one  after  its  arrival. 

Habits  of  intoxication  in  either  parent  result  in  off- 
spring who  prove  to  be  non  compos  mentis,  if  not 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  23 

drivelling  idiots.  No  wife  should  cohabit  with  an  in- 
ebriate. The  greatest  sin  that  can  be  committed  is  to 
create  a  child  who  must  of  necessity  be  a  degraded  or 
helpless  creature.  Even  if  he  escape  these  worst  con- 
sequences, he  will  be  of  quite  inferior  organization  to 
those  born  of  temperance. 

It  would  be  well  if  the  unmarried  would  visit  asy- 
lums where  idiots  and  inebriates  bear  testimony  to 
their  ante-natal  conditions. 

OVER-EXERTION. 

Over-exertion  during  pregnancy  is  almost  as  hurtful 
as  indolence,  depriving  the  unborn  of  those  vital  forces 
necessary  to  a  well -constituted  existence. 

In  no  country  called  civilized  does  the  pregnant 
woman  overtax  her  strength  as  she  does  in  these  Uni- 
ted States.  This  fact, is  quite  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  very  general  want  of  robustness,  vigor,  and  firm 
health,  especially  among  our  women.  I  refer  here 
principally  to  our  farmers'  and  mechanics'  wives. 

The  farmer's  brood  mare  is  carefully  considered. 
She  is  exercised  gently  lest  her  progeny  suffer  deterio- 
ration. But  the  farmer's  wife,  the  mother  of  his  prog- 
eny, who  are  to  do  him  honor  by  their  virtues,  or  cast 
reproach  upon  him  by  their  mediocrity  or  vices,  is  over- 
worked every  day  of  each  of  the  nine  months  of  each 
period  that  is  to  decide  his  case. 


24  VARIATION  OF    CHARACTER 

When  the  mare  has  performed  the  labor  that  is  good 
for  her,  she  is  turned  into  the  sunny  pasture  for  the 
rest  of  the  day.  But  there  is  no  considerate  arrange- 
ment for  the  wife's  walking  in  green  meadows  to  drink 
in  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  absorb  the  invigorating 
sunlight  when  she  has  had  as  much  exercise  as  is  good 
for  her.  She  cooks  and  scours,  washes  and  irons,  makes 
and  mends,  churns,  quilts,  makes  preserves,  pickels,  rag 
mats,  washes  dishes  three  times  a  day,  saves  and  con- 
trives (than  which  nothing  is  so  wearing  on  the  mind), 
attends  the  meetings  of  her  religious  society,  helping  at 
their  fairs  and  socials ;  it  is  probable  she  takes  a  boarder 
or  two  in  the  summer,  keeps  up  a  limited  correspondence 
with  her  family,  and  goes  to  bed  every  night  so  exhausted 
of  her  forces,  that  sleep  has  to  be  waited  for,  rising 
unrested  to  begin  over  again  the  dreary  daily  routine. 

You  say  she  has  wonderful  energy  and  ability.  But 
why  does  she  not  give  her  children  the  benefit  of  her 
ambition  and  faculty?  She  put  all  the  vitality,  all 
the  magnetism  that  belonged  to  her  little  daughter,  into 
the  kettles  and  pans,  into  the  soap  and  butter.  The 
butter  may  sell  well  in  the  market,  but  it  will  not  atone 
for  the  absence  of  resource  in  her  child. 

Her  boys  are  slow  to  apprehend,  and  will  never 
aspire  beyond  the  three  R's.  They  lounge  instead  of 
Bitting,  and  walk  without  dignity. 

The  girls  lack  stamina,  and  have  not  their  mother's 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  25 

ambition  to  "  put  the  work  through."  Poor  things !  They 
do  not  know  that  they  were  born  tired,  or  they  would 
offer  that  as  an  excuse.  The}7  are  lacking  in  the  mag- 
netism that  attracts,  in  the  hopefulness  and  health  that 
makes  every  day  a  satisfaction. 

If  the  husband,  on  his  farm,  or  in  his  factory,  or 
store,  has  extra  or  increasing  work,  he  forthwith  hires 
more  help  ;  but  as  child  after  child  add  to  the  responsi- 
bilities and  labors  of  the  home,  the  mother  struggles  on 
unassisted,  until  at  last  she  becomes  a  hopeless  invalid, 
or  sinks  at  middle  age  under  her  burdens,  leaving  her 
husband  with  his  accumulated  means  to  marry  a  younger 
woman,  who  sits  in  the  parlor,  hires  plenty  of  servants— 
now  considered  quite  necessary — and  has  a  good  time 
generally,  on  the  savings  of  her  predecessor. 

It  is  the  conscientious,  self -sacrificing  woman  who 
thus  wears  her  life  out  so  unnecessarily.  She  thinks  it 
her  duty.  Her  husband's  labor  has  profits  attending 
it — hers,  none.  Most  fatal  mistake !  Her  maternal 
office  was  her  first  and  highest.  If  she  filled  that  well, 
she  did  a  more  important  and  profitable  work  than  any 
that  could  fall  to  her  husband.  And  it  is  plain  enough 
that  when  suqh  domestic  services  as  hers  have  to  be 
hired,  they  have  a  very  decided  money  value. 

As  an  illustration*  of  the  dangers  of  over- work,  I  will 


*p>:e^|* 

>*  0»  THB        «^ 

&VUW  WNiTBRSITY] 


26  VABIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

cite  the  case  of  a  boy  bom  of  well-to-do  parents  in 

County,  Kentucky.  There  were  several  children  older 
and  one  younger  than  the  lad  in  question:  This  young- 
est boy  had  a  brain  of  the  very  best  calibre.  Talent, 
latent  energy,  and  determination  were  written  in  every 
line  of  the  child's  face.  "  He  has  the  will  of  a  Napo- 
leon," said  his  father,  and  this  was  true. 

The  brother  of  whom  I  would  speak  was  five  years 
the  senior  of  master  Jefferson,  a  boy  with  a  very  large 
head,  lack-lustre  eyes,  and  a  mixture  of  amiability  and 
apathy  in  his  air  and  manner.  He  relished  neither 
work,  or  study,  or  play.  I  boarded  in  the  family,  and 
had  ample  opportunity  for  exact  .observation  of  the 
very  different  characters  composing  it.  The  parents 
were  unusually  rugged  and  hearty,  and  the  children, 
with  this  one  exception,  took  after  them. 

"When,  by  careful  steps,  I  led  the  mother  back  to 
the  summer  preceding  dull  Charley's  birth,  she  was 
able  to  recall  quite  vividly  the  circumstances  that  had 
surrounded  her,  and  the  kind  of  life  she  led. 

"  Had  she,"  I  asked,  "  been  unhappy  ? " 

"  Oh,  dear  no ;  she  had  had  nothing  to  be  unhappy 
about." 

"Was  she  sick  during  any 'part  of  her  pregnancy? 
Had  she  felt  her  condition  a  greater  tax  on  her  powers 
than  was  usual  with  her  2  " 


THKOFGH   THE   MOTHER.  27 

"N*6;  on  the  contrary,  sLe  had  been  filled  with 
ambition." 

Her  husband's  mother  was  making  her  first  visit 
with  them,  and  she  was  anxious  to  prove  to  her 
how  good  and  "smart"  a  woman  her  son  had  married. 
Business  had  taken  her  husband  away  from  home  (he 
was  a  horse  and  cattle  trader,  and  was  often  absent 
months  at  a  time),  and  she  had  desired  to  surprise  him 
on  his  return  by  all  she  had  accomplished. 

"  Why,  you  would  hardly  believe  it  if  I  should  tell  you 
all  I  compassed  that  summer  before  Charley  was  born. 
I  wove  a  whole  piece  of  butternut,  and  made  my  hus- 
band a  complete  suit — a  new  one  for  Johnny,  too.  I 
put  up  sweet  pickles,  and  preserves,  and  apple  butter 
enough  to  last  more  than  a  year.  We  only  had 
Aunt  'Liza  and  that  lazy,  fat  Tish  in  the  kitchen,  and 
Jake  for  out-doors,  and  Aunt  'Liza  wasn't  much  account 
that  summer,  for  she  had  her  little  Ben  a  month  before 
Charley  came.  But  nothing  seemed  to  trouble  me. 
Husband  wrote  that  he  was  doing  right  well,  and  every 
time  put  in  some  nice  words  for  me,  and  how  he  longed 
to  see  us  all.  So  I  worked  and  worked.  I  remember 
how -tired  I  was  when  night  came.  I  was  always  ac- 
counted a  sound  sleeper,  but  that  summer  I  could  not 
sleep.  I  heard  the  big  clock  in  the  entry  strike  one 
and  two  half  the  time." 


28  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

Here,  you  see,  the  mother's  activity  gave  the  large 
head,  while  what  should  have  tilled  it  with  compact 
brain  went  into  the  butternut  and  preserves. 

I  have  known  women  stand  at  the  ironing-table 
ready  to  drop  with  fatigue,  while  they  smoothed  out 
the  last  crease  from  the  kitchen  towel. 

It  is  a  growing  custom  to  embroider  under-garments, 
night-dresses,  etc.  Such  work  is  extremely  fascinating, 
and  women  who  can  not  afford  to  purchase  it,  will  oft- 
en allow  themselves  to  stitch  far  into  the  night.  This* 
tends  to  make  a  child  narrow-chested  and  short-sighted, 
and  is  unfavorable  to  good  looks,  and  the  embroidered 
garments  do  not  make  it  as  attractive  as  would  a  serene 
and  sunny  disposition.  Grace  is  said  to  depend  on  ex- 
cess of  power.  Insufficiency  of  power  precludes  this 
quality,  which  is  even  more  fascinating  than  beauty 
itself. 

There  are,  unfortunately,  among  all  classes,  women 
who  can  not,  or  do  not,  extend  their  thoughts  beyond 
the  trimming  on  their  skirts,  or  the  last  small  scandal. 
Alas !  for  the  high-minded,  true-hearted  man  who  unites 
his  destiny  with  one  of  these.  Her  aims  are  paltry,  and 
his  tine  traits  in  her  keeping  are  changed  to  littleness. 
She  clings  to  her  petty  interests,  and  he  can  no  more 
inspire  her  with  larger  views  than  he  can  mould  a  mar- 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  29 

ble  image.  She  represents  herself  in  her  children.  His 
descendants  through  her  progress  backward,  and  he  is 
obliged  to  admit  that  woman  has  the  greater  power  in 
the  formation  of  character. 

After  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  no 
greater  mistake  can  be  made  than  for  a  mother,  while 
creating  immortals,  to  flrudge  and  scrimp  for  the  sake 
of  being  some  day  well,  or  better  off.  While  she  has  thus 
slaved,  sparing  herself  no  restful  hours  in  which  to  enjoy 
the  beauty  of  flower  or  field,  in  which  to  contemplate  a 
beautiful  face  or  graceful  figure  in  real  life  or  picture, 
in  which  to  enjoy  music  or  the  creations  of  genius  in 
literature,  she  has  fixed  irrevocably  for  this  world  the 
unsatisfactory  status  of  her  children  who  will  so  poorly 
adorn  the  new  house  when  it  is  one  day  built. 

There  is  a  ministry  without  us  visible  and  invisible, 
and  angels  find  it  difficult  to  approach  with  gifts  the 
mother  absorbed  by  household  drudgery. 

EFFECT   OF   IMAGINATION. 

[This,  with  the  account  of  the  New  Berlin  Prostitute,  was  communicated  to  mo 
by  my  iriend,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Faruham]. 

In  a  remote  hamlet  in  one  of  the  then  young 
Western  States,  Mrs.  F.  became  acquainted  with  a 
family  which  included  nearly  a  dozen  members,  and 
nearly  all  married,  and  settled  within  easy  distance  of 
the  old  homestead.  The  sexes  were  pretty  equally 


30  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

divided,  each  and  every  one  of  these  young  men  and 
women  being  in  appearance  and  character  below  me- 
diocrity, with  one  exception.  The  latter  was  a  young 
girl  about  nineteen  years  old,  who  was  so  evidently 
and  remarkably  superior  both  in  personal  appearance 
and  nature,  that  it  did  not  seem  possible  she  could  be- 
long to  the  same  family.  Beside  the  heavy,  coarse 
faces  of  her  brothers  and  sisters,  hers  was  angelic  in  its 
graceful  contour,  long-fringed  lids  and  refined,  express- 
ive mouth.  The  very  curly  hair,  which  resembled  the 
mother's  only  in  its  curliness,  had  a  golden  glint  that 
removed  it  by  several  degrees  of  relationship  from  the 
wiry  red  on  one  side  and  faded  black  on  the  other, 
which  crowned  the  broad,  low  heads  of  the  gruff 
brothers  and  two  drowsy-looking  married  sisters  who 
were  at  this  time  home  on  a  long  visit. 

This  girl,  now  the  successful  teacher  of  the  district- 
school,  filled  her  place  in  the  always  untidy,  dilapidated 
household,  unconscious  of  being  an  anomaly.  She  had 
made  some  effort  to  brighten  the  dingy  walls,  and  here 
and  there  the  uneven  floor  of  the  living-room  was  con- 
cealed by  pretty  rag^mats  of  her  making. 

Notwithstanding  the  inferiority  of  the  family  as  a 
whole,  there  was  a  general  friendliness  among  the  mem- 
bers, proceeding  from  the  rough,  but  unfailing  defer- 
ence shown  by  the  father  to  the  mother.  Nelly's 
wishes  received  a  sort  of  grumbling  attention,  and  her 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  31 

opinion  was  quoted  as  having  weight.  Still,  owing  to 
the  very  refined  character  of  her  attractions,  they  were 
evidently  to  a  great  extent  overlooked  by  all  bnt  her 
mother. 

Mrs.  F.  was  a  long  while  in  getting  hold  of  any  clue 
that  would  explain  this  phenomenon. 

No,  Nelly  was  not  born  in  that  low  dwelling  under 
the  shadow  of  those  catalpas,  but  in  a  poorer  shanty 
in  Northern  Tennessee. 

No,  there  were  no  nice  people  thereabouts  ;  no  kind 
Methodist  preacher  visited  them.  They  were  sort  of 
outside  the  "  circuit." 

No,  there  was  no  school-teacher  boarded  with  them. 
There  was  quite  a  spell  when  there  was  a  quarrel  about 
whose  land  the  school-house  occupied,  and  school  didn't 
keep  more  than  three  months  any  way. 

In  view  of  so  much  content  in  the  midst  of  so  much 
dirt  and  disorder,  it  did  not  seem  worth  while  to  ask  if 
any  one  had  lent  her  books  which  pleased  her.  How- 
ever, the  conversation  evidently  recalled  pleasant  mem- 
ories, for  the  weather-beaten  countenance  of  the  kind- 
hearted  old  woman  suddenly  lit  up,  and  her  small  eyes 
twinkled  with  happy  light  as  she  said : 

"  We  were  awful  poor  about  those  times,  and  there 
was  no  look-out  for  anything  better.  Some  of  the 
boys  had  come  up  here  to  see  if  they  couldn't  get  better 
land.  But  we  had  no  money  to  buy  it  with  if  there 


32  VAEIATION   OF   CHAEACTEE  I 

was,  and  there  was  a  book  I  must  tell  you  about  —  a 
book  that  lifted  me  right  out  of  myself.  You  see  there 
came  along  a  peddler  — 'twas  a  wonder  how  he  ever  got 
to  such  an  out-of-the-way  place — well,  he  unpacked  his 
traps,  and  among  them  was  a  little  book  with  a  lovely 
green  and  gold  cover,  'Twas  the  sweetest  little  thing 
you  ever  saw,  and  there  was  just  the  nicest  picture  in 
the  front.  I  saw  'twas  poetry,  and  on  the  first  page  it 
said,  c  The  Lady  of  the  Lake ;'  that  was  all.  I  did  want 
that  book,  and  I  had  a  couple  of  dollars  in  a  stocking- 
foot  on  the  chimney-shelf,  but  a  dollar  was  a  big  thing 
then,  and  I  didn't  feel  as  if  I  ought  to  indulge  myself, 
so  I  said  no,  and  saw  him  pack  up  his  things  and  travel. 

"  Then  I  could  think  of  nothing  but  that  book  the 
rest  of  the  day,  I  wanted  it  so  bad,  and  at  night  I 
couldn't  sleep  for  thinking  of  it.  At  last  I  got  up,  and 
without  making  a  bit  of  noise,  dressed  myself,  and 
walked  four  miles  to  Scranton  Centre,  where  the  ped- 
dler had  told  me  he  should  stay  that  night — at  the 
Browns — friends  of  ours,  they  were,  and  I  got  him  up, 
and  bought  the  book,  and  brought  it  back  with  me, 
just  as  contented  and  satisfied  as  you  can  believe.  I 
looked  it  over  and  through,  put  it  under  my  pillow, 
and  slept  soundly  till  morning. 

"  The  next  day  I  began  to  read  the  beautiful  story. 
Every  page  took  that  hold  of  me  that  I  forgot  all 
about  the  pretty  cover,  and  perhaps  you  wouldn't  be- 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  33 

lieve  it,  but  before  Nelly  was  born,  if  you  would  but 
give  me  a  word  here  and  there,  I  could  begin  at  the 
beginning,  ind  say  it  clear  through  to  the  end.  It  ap- 
peared to  me  I  was  there  with  those  people  by  the 
lakes  in  the  mountains — with  Allan  bane  and  his  harp, 
Ellen  Douglas,  Malcolm  Graeme,  Fitz- James,  and  the 
others.  I  saw  Ellen's  picture  before  me  when  I  was 
milking  the  cow,  or  cooking  on  the  hearth,  or 
weeding  the  little  garden.  There  she  was,  stepping 
about  so  sweetly  in  the  rhyme,  that  I  felt  it  to  be 
all  true  as  the  day,  more  true  after  I  could  repeat 
it  to  myself.  And  then  when  I  found  my  baby  grew 
into  such  a  pretty  girl,  and  so  smart  too,  it  seemed  as  if 
Providence  had  been  ever  so  good  to  me  again.  But 
children  are  mysteries  any  way.  I've  wondered  a 
thousand  times  why  Nelly  was  such  a  lady,  and  why 
she  loved  to  learn  so  much  more  than  the  other  chil- 
dren. She  has  read  to  me  ever  since  she  was  ten  years 
old,  and  she's  got  quite  a  lot  of  books  there,  you  see, 
ma'am.  She's  mighty  fond  of  poetry,  too." 

RESULTS   OF   UNUSED   TALENT. 

To  illustrate  the  advantages  of  healthful  duties 
and  self-esteem,  and  the  evils  following  want  of  occu- 
pation, I  will  give  the  experience  of  an  old  friend,  a 
former  resident  of  this  State.  For  convenience  I  will 
?all  her  Mrs.  Hosmer. 


34  VARIATION  OF  CHARACTER: 

This  daughter  of  an  orderly  and  peaceful  home,  in 
Western  New  York,  became  engaged  when  quite  young 
to  an  intelligent  young  man,  who  afterward  became 
foreman  in  her  father's  iron-works.  Several  years 
elapsed  before  the  young  man  felt  at  liberty  to  take  on 
himself  the  cares  and  expenses  of  a  family.  He  sought 
to  expedite  matters  by  obtaining  a  California  agency 
from  a  large  hardware  establishment.  This  took  him 
from  home,  and  pending  the  decision,  he  became  in- 
timately acquainted  with  another  young  woman  pos- 
sessing marked  personal  attractions,  different  entirely 
from  those  of  his  long  time  fiancee.  News  of 
his  supposed  disloyalty  reached  his  betrothed  .simul- 
taneously with  his  return  to  his  native  town  with  the 
agency  in  his  pocket  —  ready  for  the  ceremony,  and 
removal  to  California.  The  beauty,  and  alert,  independ- 
ent ways  of  the  young  woman  in  question,  were  set 
forth  to  the  betrothed  in  a  manner  calculated  to  depress 
her  own  self-esteem,  and  raise  a  doubt  of  her  lover's 
satisfaction  in  her,  but  not  enough  doubt,  she  thought, 
to  justify  an  explanation,  or  to  impede  the  marriage, 
which  therefore  took  place  at  once. 

In  San  Francisco,  Mrs.  Hosmer  found  herself  in  what 
are  considered  most  fortunate  circumstances,  i.  0.,  she 
had  nothing  to  do,  and  had  no  need  of  doing  anything. 
She  was  a  born  housekeeper  and  a  skillful  cook,  but  in 
ti  boarding-house  these  talents  remained  unexercised, 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  35 

She  was  a  neat  and  swift  seamstress,  but  her  mother 
having  supplied  her  with  the  usual  superfluity  of  gar- 
ments included  in  a  wedding  outfit,  her  talent  lay  dor- 
mant in  this  direction  also.  Then  she  was  amongst 
strangers,  shy,  and  unacquainted  with  others  needing 
assistance.  So,  while  her  husband  was  at  his  place  of 
business,  her  sole  thought  was — bearing  in  mind  her 
imaginary  rival — Is  Martin  satisfied  with  me  ?  Is  he 
happy  ?  Will  he  think  this  dress  becoming  to  me  ? 

Mr.  Hosmer  went  and  came,  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
doubt  in  his  wife's  mind.  He  was  now  jovial  and  un- 
reserved, now  abstracted  and  anxious,  as  business  prom- 
ised success  or  failure ;  but  always  gentle  and  consider- 
ate with  his  wife.  The  latter  was  a  sisterly  rather  than 
a  wifely  person.  There  was,  therefore,  a  lack  of  spon- 
taneity in  the  union,  yet  no  real  unhappiness  on  either 
side. 

In  due  time  a  babe  was  born — a  girl — my,  acquaint- 
ance with  whom  commenced  when  she  was  about  eight- 
een ;  a  fair,  graceful  creature,  with  a  small  head  on  a 
large,  well-proportioned  body,  soft,  helpless,  imploring 
blue  eyes,  a  rosebud  mouth,  and  a  peculiar,  plaintive 
tone  in  her  speaking  voice  v 

She  had  just  left  a  private  school,  where  for  years 
she  had  gone  through  books  mechanically,  coached  for 
examinations  by  her  good-natured,  brighter  companions. 
She  wrote  a  neat  hand  and  a  limited  amount  of  correct 


36  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

English.  But  she  could  never  explain  a  page  of  her 
natural  philosophy  or  algebra,  and  could  not  reason  on 
any  subject  more  profound  than  the  making  of  a  dress 
or  the  dressing  of  her  hair.  She  was  an  amiable,  affec- 
tionate, incapable,  timid  girl,  who  always  leaned  on 
others  for  support. 

Now,  this  weak-minded  girl  had  a  sister  two  years 
her  junior,  as  unlike,  except  in  the  color  of  her  hair,  eyes, 
and  complexion,  as  any  two  persons  could  be.  Where 
Rosy  was  insignificantly  prett/,  Charlotte  was  com- 
mandingly  handsome.  Firmness,  courage,  self-reliance, 
reasoning  faculty,  she  had  in  marked  measure.  She 
was  already  through  the  high-echool  studies,  taking  & 
year's  rest  between  that  and  the  university,  while  hei 
mother  made  the  long-wished-f or  visit  East ;  delighted 
to  be  mistress  of  the  house,  since  she  was  practically 
skilled  in  domestic  arts  herself. 

Having  previously  learned  the  circumstances  that 
had  so  impressed  themselves  on  Rosa,  I  longed  to  un- 
derstand how  Mrs.  Hosmer  was  situated  before  the 
birth  of  her  second  daughter. 

"  Were  you  still  boarding  when  you  were  pregnant 
with  Charlotte  ? "  I  asked,  one  day.  "  She  carries  her- 
self with  so  much  dignity,  she  has  so  much  conscious 
power  that  it  does  not  seem  as  if  she  could  be  related 
to  Rosy." 

"  Bless  you,  no,"  ^he  replied,  laughing.     "  We  were 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  37 

keeping  house  then,  and  I  had  the  sole  care  of  Captain 
Rimes'  three  children.  Their  mother  had  died,  you 
remember.  Father  sent  me  our  old  Nora,  and  she  was 
a  great  help  to  me.  Still,  I  had  plenty  of  responsi- 
bility, and  not  a  little  labor  besides.  Bat  I  had  gotten 
over  all  my  fears  about  Martin's  not  being  happy.  He 
fairly  worshiped  Rosy,  and  was  so  proud  when  people 
called  her  a  fairy,  as  they  always  did.  People  said  we 
were  the  handsomest  couple  that  walked  up  the  aisle  in 
Starr  King's  church.  Then,  principally,  I  had  no  time 
to  make  trouble  by  analyzing  my  face  in  the  glass  and 
proving  to  myself  that  I  was  a  fright,  as  I  used  to  do." 

CONSTRUCTIVENESS   AND   ARTISTIC   TENDENCY. 

Jannette,  a  well-balanced,  conscientious  young  woman, 
had  married  a  sign-painter,  who  kept  strictly  within  the 
limits  of  his  business.  She  had  now  three  children, 
healthy,  nice-looking,  docile  children,  but  without  any 
special  characteristics.  They  had  been  living  in  a  rented 
house,  but  now  Jannette's  father,  having  met  with 
success  in  some  business  venture,  purchased  for  his 
daughter  a  good  lot,  on  which  they  were  able  to  build 
a  moderate  house.  Mrs.  T.  at  this  time  was  pregnant 
with  her  fourth  child,  and  she  entered,  with  the  zest 
such  good  fortune  would  naturally  call  out,  into  the 
planning  and  replanning  the  new  home,  so  as  to  eecure 
the  maximum  of  space,  comfort,  and  architectural 


38  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

beauty  out  of  their  modest  means.  With  this  her 
thoughts  were  occupied  during  the  day,  and  the  even- 
ings were  passed  advising  together  over  the  height  of 
doors  and  windows,  the  odd  spaces  for  closets,  the  pre- 
cise wood  for  the  different  floors.  This  was  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  rainy  season.  The  storms  once  over, 
the  lumber  was  hauled,  and  the  house  put  up  forthwith. 

It  now  became  necessary,  with  the  last  remnant  of 
the  savings  before  her,  as  basis  and  limit  to  her  opera- 
tions, to  calculate  what,  of  the  new  furniture  needed, 
could  be  bought.  The  papering  also  must  be  con- 
sidered. 

"  I  want  a  touch  of  what  is  called  the  artistic  in  our 
room  and  the  sitting-room,  if  we  can't  do  more.  Let 
me  help  to  choose  the  wall-paper.  I  shall  have  to  see 
it  every  minute  of  the  day,"  she  said. 

A  first-class  Brussels  carpet,  somewhat  worn,  was 
bought  at  auction.  This  was  so  remodeled  as  to  ap- 
pear new  and  elegant.  A  fringed  lambrequin  for  the 
mantel-shelf  (which  was  not  marble) ;  a  few  pretty,  but 
cheap,  brackets ;  a  few  photographs  of  fine  paintings, 
which  had  lain  out  of  sight  for  years,  made  into  passo- 
partouts,  and  hung  judiciously.  Pretty  imitation  chintz 
curtains,  with  lambrequin  top,  for  the  bed-room ;  sheer 
muslin,  lined  with  Turkey-red,  for  the  living-room  ; 
well-fitting  chintz  covers  for  the  old  couch 'and  arm- 
chair, the  colors  made  to  harmonize  with  carpet  and 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  39 

wall-paper,  which  latter  was,  of  course,  neutral-tinted ;  a 
hanging-basket,  already  well-filled  and  growing,  in  each 
window  ;  a  f ew  inexpensive,  urn-shaped  vases  for  flow- 
ers; a  graceful  evening  lamp.  This  last  Jannette 
feared  an  extravagance,  but  "  it  will  be  so  restful  to 
our  eyes ;  think  of  it,  dear,  every  evening." 

When  all  was  ready,  a  house-warming  was~given,  and 
was  not  our  little  wife  proud  of  her  success  ?  She  really 
had  not  realized  before  her  own  talent  and  good  taste. 
"  I  am  sure,  Mr.  T.,  you  must  have  spent  hundreds  of 
dollars  on  all  this,"  said  Mr.  T.'s  partner's  wife,  who 
frowned  severely  on  all  extravagance.  Jannette  shook 
her  head  and  smiled. 

And  now,  in  a  few  weeks,  all  was  ready  for  the  new- 
comer —  Master  Thomas  Bliss  Trescott,  as  he  was 
named.  In  after  years  the  mother  still  remembered 
'the  pleasure  she  had  had  in  the  arrangement  of  their 
lovely  home,  but  she  did  not  connect  that  fact  with  the 
sterling  intellect  and  marked  artistic  ability  of  her 
fourth  child  (and  second  son),  notwithstanding  that 
he  was  seen  by  all  to  be  head  and  shoulders  above  the 
rest  in  all  that  makes  a  man. 

JEALOUSY. 

No  influence,  excepting  the  desire  to  dislodge  and  so 
murder  the  unborn,  has  so  damaging  an  effect  on  the 
character  of  the  child  as  jealousy.  I  have  but  toe 


40  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

often  seen  the  workings  of  this  emotion  and  its  con* 
sequent  evils. 

I  once  lived  in  the  house  of  a  good-hearted  young 
Irish  woman,  the  mother  of  two  girls,  respectively  two 
and  five  years  old.  The  younger  was  a  happy,  rollick- 
ing little  dot,  needing  small  care,  and  finding  amuse- 
ment in  everything  about  her. 

The  older  child,  a  coarse,  distorted  likeness  of  her 
mother  in  form  and  feature,  presented  a  strong  contrast 
to  her  sister.  There  was  a  sly,  malicious  expression  in 
her  light  blue  eyes — at  times  a  vicious  leer  so  horrible 
in  childhood.  I  used  to  watch  her  at  my  leisure,  and 
have  seen  her  deliberately  stick  a  pin  into  her  sister 
and  push  ^  her  down,  standing  silently  pleased  to  see 
she  was  hurt. 

"  Do  you  see  how  different  in  disposition  your  two 
girls  are  ? "  I  one  day  asked  the  mother. 

"  Oh  !  sure,  I  do,  Miss,"  she  replied,  "  and  I  don't  see 
why  the  good  God  give  Katy  thim  ways  she  has.  She 
angers  me  that  much  sometimes,  that  I  could  just  kill 
her,  I  could,  when  I  see  her  wid  me  own  eyes  pinch  the 
baby,  and  the  darlint  looking  up  as  innocent,  sinilin',  wid 
the  tears  in  her  eyes,  as  if  she  didn't  believe  it,  nohow." 

"  Did  you  live  here  among  these  beautiful  hills  be- 
fore Katy  was  born  ? "  I  asked. 

"  Shure  an'  I  did,  Miss,  and  me  husband  worked  in 
the  factory  yonder." 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  4:1 

a  The  scenery  is  so  lovely  round  here,  that  if,  as  you 
say,  you  have  a  good  husband,  you  ought  to  have  been 
happy  all  the  time.  Were  you  quite  as  happy  when 
you  were  carrying  Katy  as  you  were  with  Molly  ? " 

"  Happy,  is  it,  you  say,  Miss  ?  an5  shure  whin  me 
husband  was  tuk  up  wid  another  woman,  how  could  I 
"je  happy  ?  An'  he  a  spending  his  money  on  her,  too,  an3 
the  wages  got  lower,  an'  it's  not  the  money  that  riled 
me  neither,  it's  me  as  was  but  a  few  months  married, 
an5  in  a  strange  counthrie,  and  he  a  riding  more  nor 
three  times  wid  her  in  a  chaise,  it  is.  Och  !  but  he'd 
been  over  and  larnt  the  wicked  ways  before  iver  he 
brought  me  here.  Faith,  me  heart  was  broken,  it  was, 
an'  I  hated  that  woman  so,  I  was  longing  all  the  time 
to  lay  me  hands  on  her.  I'd  liked  to  have  murthered 
the  old  divil,  an5  I  wanted  to  go  to  the  factory  an'  in- 
form on  her,  but  me  husband  cursed  me,  and  threat- 
ened to  kill  me  if  I  did." 

I  knew  her  husband,  and  he  was  a  very  fair  specimen 
of  the  better  class  of  Irish  laborers.  He  behaved  him- 
self very  well,  I  thought,  and  was  never  tired  of  play- 
ing with  the  baby  Molly.  It  was  by  slow  observation 
I  discovered  that  illicit  relations  make  a  man  cruel, 
brutal  to  the  wife  he  deserts. 

"And  was  he  still  behaving  so  badly  while  you  were 
oearing  the  baby  Molly  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  The  saints  be  praised,  no,  Miss.   The  woman  moved 


4:2  VARIATION   OF  CHARACTER 

away  a  bit  after  Katy  was  born.  Bad  'cess  to  her;  and 
Pat  giv'  up  his  bad  ways  afther,  and  trated  me  rale  well, 
too.  The  baste  of  a  woman  niver  come  back,  an'  I  tu.1 
ao  more  throuble  consarning  her." 

"  That  was  sensible  and  kind,  too,  in  you/'  I  said ; 
"  but  it  would  have  been  better  for  poor  Katy  if  she 
had  gone  sooner.  You  see,  you  put  all  your  hatred  of 
that  woman  into  Katy,  and  she  is  not  so  good  or  so 
pretty  in  consequence." 

"  An'  do  you  mane  to  say,  Miss,  that  God  could 
make  me  Katy  bad,  an'  me  a  suiferin'  too  ?  " 

"  Well,  but  did  not  she  lie  right  under  your  heart 
when  you  were  longing  to  lay  hands  on  that  wicked 
woman  ?  All  your  feelings  went  with  the  blood  that 
nourished  her  every  day  through  all  those  months.  It 
was  a  sad  chance  for  her,  poor  child." 

It  was  some  time  before  the  good  creature  could 
accept  an  idea  so  foreign  to  her  crude  opinions  on  the 
subject.  But  she  saw  at  last  how  it  must  be.  She 
promised  to  control  her  temper  (she  was  again  preg- 
nant), and  I  advised  her  not  to  be  severe  in  her  treat- 
ment of  poor  Katy,  but  to  give  her  a  little  garden  in 
the  poorly-fenced  lot,  with  some  cheap  seeds  to  plant 
to  occupy  her  mind ;  and  for  herself,  she  should  not 
dwell  on  Katy's  looks  and  imperfections,  but  enjoy 
Molly  all  she  could,  and  sing  every  day  some  of  liei 
sweet  Irish  songs. 


'    THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  43 

During  courtship  it  is  the  habit  of  the  mind  to  avoid 
all  topics  on  which  disagreement  is  anticipated.  This 
conies  of  a  longing  for  sympathy,  and  a  fear  of  losing 
whatever  degree  of  it  is  possible  between  the  parties. 
[t  is  a  dangerous  course,  and  imperils  future  happiness, 
because  after  marriage  all  disguises  are  sure  to  be  drop- 
ped, and  the  want  of  harmony  in  opinion  and  feeling 
becomes  at  once  prominent. 

Under  such  circumstances  an  excellent  young  man 
of  our  acquaintance,  whom  we  will  call  N.,  became 
the  husband  of  a  lady  of  equally  admirable,  but  wholly 
different  character,  by  name  C.  A  few  months  of 
married  life  sufficed  to  reveal  the  width  of  the  gulf  be- 
tween them.  It  could  not  be  ignored.  Their  estimate 
of  individuals,  actions,  looks,  were  always  at  variance. 
Shrinking  from  the  pain  of  dissent,  C.  learned  to  limit 
her  conversation  to  the  very  simplest  matters  of  house- 
hold occurrence,  then  to  the  baby,  who  seemed  to  have 
inherited  all  the  inharmony  of  the  alliance,  never  con- 
tent, always  awake. 

Other  children  were  born  to  them,  capable,  conscien- 
tious children,  wanting  serene  affection  and  content- 
ment, as  only  love  can  beget  love.  So  the  years  went 
on,  w^hen  circumstances  threw  JST.  almost  daily  into  the 
society  of  one  of  those  women  who  appeal  directly  to 
the  passions  of  a  man — a  handsome  animal,  with  no 
ecruples  of  conscience  as  to  the^ai^ bring 


44  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER- 

on  another  woman.  N".  felt  more  at  home  in  the 
company  of  one  below  his  own  plane,  than  with  one 
who  was  above  it,  and  plunged  at  once  into  what  is 
politely  termed  a  Uason. 

While  this  affair  was  at  its  height,  C.  found  herself 
pregnant ;  and  her  husband  expressing  his  annoyance  at 
the  prospect  of  another  child,  and  dreading  the  eifect 
on  the  child  of  her  own  desolation  and  sense  of  wrong, 
she  would  have  rejoiced  could  she  have  brought  on  the 
menstrual  flow.  Finding  this  an  impossibility  at  so 
early  a  stage,  and  unwilling  to  risk  injuring  the  child 
later  on,  she  made  up  her  mind  to  do  her  "  level  best  " 
and  bear  it.  By  sheer  force  of  will,  and  by  the  most 
passionate  prayer  for  help  from  Above,  to  enable  her  to 
live  above  her  surroundings,  to  save  her  from  bearing 
malice ;  shutting  her  eyes  to  the  cruel  insensibility  of 
N".  and  his  affinity,  keeping  them  open  to  the  needs  of 
others,  she  lived  day  by  day,  working,  aspiring,  dread- 
ing lest  her  efforts  should  fail  to  save  her  child,  deter- 
mined that  he  should  be  saved. 

The  effect  of  her  high  endeavor  astonished  even  her- 
Belf .  She  had  lifted  him  above  the  clouds  and  put  him 
en  rapport  with  greater  good  and  wiser  wisdom  than 
came  to  the  other  children.  His  nature  proved  to  be 
hopeful  and  trustful,  with  more  affection  to  bestow  on 
the  mother  who  had  thus  struggled  for  him,  than  sons 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  45 

usually  feel  for  mothers,  and  more  forre  of  intellect 
than  easier  conditions  would  have  ensured. 

Could  any  instance  more  fully  prove  the  mother's 
peculiar  power  in  moulding  the  constitution  of  her 
child  ?  The  father's  thoughts  were  all  engrossed  with 
his  mistress.  The  mother's  persistent,  intelligent,  un- 
selfish aspiration  alone  saved  her  son  from  being;  the 
spiritual  brother  of  poor  Katy — the  child  of  malice. 

THE   NEW   BERLIN   PROSTITUTE. 

The  following  illustrates  the  fearful  consequences  of 
sexual  indulgence  during  pregnancy : 

"  Charlotte  and  I  were  school-mates  and  dear  friends 
ever  since  I  can  remember  anything,"  said  the  young 
woman.  "  Our  parents  had  been  friends  before  us.  I 
think  we  were  equals  in  every  sense,  except  that  Lotty 
was  handsomer  than  I.  We  became  engaged  and  were 
married  on  the  same  day,  when  I  was  twenty-one  and 
she  twenty-two  years  of  age.  Our  husbands  are  both 
honorable  and  kind  men,  and  so  far  as  our  married 
lives  are  concerned,  we  have  both  been  well  situated. 

"  In  about  the  usual  time  after  marriage  we  found 
ourselves  pregnant,  and  as  we  lived  not  far  distant 
from  each  other,  we  made  our  babies'  wardrobes  in 
company,  anticipating,  with  much  pleasure,  the  already 
dear  children. 


46  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

""We  had  passed  the  fifth  fnonth,  when  Lotty,  for 
the  first  time,  alluded  to  her  most  private  life  with  her 
husband,  saying  she  was  so  glad  that  she  could  respond 
so  fully  to  his  demands.  It  had  not  been  so  at  first, 
^but  now  the  relation  occurred  almost  every  night,  and 
she  experienced  quite  as  much  emotion  as  he  did,  to 
his  very  great  satisfaction. 

"  I  made  an  exclamation  of  surprise,  and  then  was 
silent.  My  own  experience  had  been  entirely  opposed 
to  hers,  but  I  knew  nothing  of  right  or  wrong  in  such 
matters  ;  I  had  nothing  to  reply. 

"  In  due  time,  to  our  great  delight,  we  each  held  a 
daughter  in  our  arms.  Other  children  followed  pretty 
close  on  their  track,  and  our  meetings,  though  no  less 
cordial,-  became  less  frequent.  The  years  flew  past  on 
swift  wing.  Our  eldest  children  were  thirteen  years 
old ;  mine  a  refined,  conscientious,  reliable  girl ;  hers 
too  mature  bodily,  and  with  a  rather  handsome,  but 
positive,  sensual  face.  In  order — as  they  intended — to 
check  the  forwardness  of  her  manners,  she  was  sent  to 
boarding-school.  Here  she  climbed  out  of  the  window 
at  night,  and  having  had  an  intrigue  with  a  boy  belong- 
ing to  an  academy  near  by,  was  expelled  from  the  insti- 
tution. The  parents  entreated,  bribed,  threatened, 
with  no  signs  of  improvement  on  her  part.  Fin  ally, 
when  this  poor  child  wanted  two  months  of  reaching 
her  fifteenth  year,  she  left  her  home,  and  of,  her  own 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  47 

free  will  became  the  inmate  of  a  brothel.  Once  or 
twice,  through  the  help  of  a  detective,  she  was  recov- 
ered ;  but  only  to  escape  again  to  follow  the  life  that 
suited  her  organization. 

"  Her  father's  head  was  bowed  with  grief.  The  mother 
became  hard  and  irritable,  growing  to  hate  the  child* 
who  had  brought  on  them  so  much  sorrow  and  shame. 
I  grieved  for  them,  but  I  never  understood  the  case 
till  I  heard  you  speak  of  the  mother's  power  over  her 
unborn  child.  Now  T  see  that  Maria  was  the  victim 
of  her  parents'  ignorance."  * 

VIOLATION, OF    SEXUAL   LAW    DURING   PREGNANCY. 

I  will  briefly  refer  to  another  instance  where  the 
child  so  fatally  endowed  was  a  boy. 

The  sisters  of  this  boy — women  of  some  presence — 


*  Dr.  Sanger,  who  is  authority  on  the  subject  of  pros- 
titution, says  that  the  observation  of  years  among  the 
abandoned  class,  has  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  only 
one  woman  in  a  thousand  is  brought  to  adopt  the  life  of  a 
prostitute  from  the  same  sensual  proclivities  that  make  a 
.man  consort  with  the  abandoned.  Seduction  by  a  lover, 
followed  by  the  rejection  of  society,  poverty,  inability  to 
labor,  desire  for  elegant  clothing,  and  various  other  causes, 
have  brought  the  other  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  into 
this  bitter  degradation.  The  young  girl  alluded  to  above 
was  one  of  the  exceptions.  Since  while  pregnant — women, 
sad  to  say,  have  been  constantly  forced  to  vield  their  per- 
sons to  the  lusts  of  the  husband,  they  have  in  spirit  re- 
belled against  the.  unnatural  demand,  instead  of  heartily 
assenting. 


4:8  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

were  already  married,  and  mothers,  when  their  mother 
found  herself  pregnant  at  forty-live.  The  husband 
was  much  gratified  at  the  prospect  of  becoming  a  fa- 
ther at  sixty,  and  expressed  this  satisfaction  in  frequent 
relations  with  his  wife.  It  so  happened  that  their  pe- 
cuniary circumstances  were  easier  than  at  any  previous 
time,  and  the  wife  employed  "help,"  which  relieved 
her  of  all  the  severer  household  duties.  She  was  not 
an  intellectual  or  cultivated  woman,  and  the  unaccus- 
tomed leisure  did  not  prove  a  boon,  since  it  left  her 
•tfith  unspent  strength  to  meet  and  respond  to  the 
demands  made  upon  her  quite  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Infant's  arrival.  Thus,  you  see,  the  boy  had  imparted 
to  him  over-active  amativeness,  combined  with  small 
mental  activities.  How  should  he  when  a  man  restrain 
Ms  passions,  when  during  all  his  ante-natal  life  his 
parents  had  put  no  restraint  on  theirs  ?  He  did  not. 
He  showed  himself  a  low  bully  among  his  school-mates, 
and  the  dread  of  the  younger  girls,  before  he  had 
reached  his  "teens."  After  that,  his  sensual,  brutal 
behavior  actually  repelled  his  boy-companions.  When 
a  man,  he  barely  escaped  being  the  inmate  of  a  prison, 
as  he  had  been  already  of  worse  places. 

The  man  who  is  dominated  by  this  one  quality  is 
very  often  handsome,  magnetic,  and  attractive  to  women. 
He  boasts  privately,  if  not  publicly,  of  his  conquests, 
holding  no  reputation  sacred. 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  49 

Perhaps  t;>  common  observation  he  is  a  gentleman, 
and  you  hear  of  his  liasons  in  a  whisper.  Alas !  for 
the  wives  of  these  gay  cavaliers.  They  lead  a  lonely 
life,  since  he  spends  the  best  of  himself — his  suave 
manners  and  good  nature — in  fact,  all  of  himself  else- 
where. 

Suddenly  and  all  unexpectedly  you  hear  that  this  at- 
tractive man,  not  forty-five,  is  sinking  down  with  some 
insidious  disease.  It  is  called  neuralgia  in  the  head,  or 
paralysis,  and  the  doctor  has  the  promise  of  a  long  job. 
It  is,  in  fact,  softening  of  the  brain,  caused  by  excessive 
passional  excitement  and  the  undue  drain  on  his  vital 
forces.  He  may  live  years,  his  digestive  organs  holding 
out  better,  because  having  drifted  into  idiocy  there  is 
no  longer  any  wear  and  tear  of  the  mind. 

This  man  has  been  "  successful "  with  women,  and 
this  is  the  finale. 


Mr.  Z.,  a  man  of  thirty-five,  of  a  refined,  intellect- 
ual, but  rather  cold  nature,  married  his  ward,  an 
amiable,  immature  girl  of  fifteen.  Her  attraction  for 
him  lay  in  her  youthful  affection  and  her  healthy, 
handsome,  physical  characteristics.  She  had  in  her  the 
"  makings "  of  a  thoughtful,  self-reliant  woman ;  but 
development  in  natural  order  was  arrested  by  her  being 
placed  in  so  false  a  position — &  wife  at  scarcely  fifteen* 


50  VARIATION   OF   CHAEACTER 

Very  soon  after  the  marriage  she  found  herself 
pregnant.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Z.  for  love  of  her  and  foi 
the  sake  of  companionship,  earnestly  endeavored  to 
awaken  in  her  some  intellectual  tastes.  He  read  to 
her,  explaining  and  illustrating  as  he  went  along,  many 
of  the  standard  English  poets  and  essayists.  She  lis- 
tened, received,  and  grew  en  rapport  with  him. 

Under  these  favorable  auspices  their  first  child  was 
born.  She  was  the  child  of  the  father,  and  wore  his 
features,  toned  to  greater  delicacy  of  outline  and  purer 
colors.  Her  mind  as  she  grew  to  womanhood  was  of  a 
quite  superior  order,  but  wanted  the  breadth  and  gen- 
erosity which  more  warmth  in  the  father,  and  greater 
ripeness  in  the  mother,  would  have  secured  to  her. 

This  infant  once  in  the  mother's  arms  there  could 
be  no  further  leisure  for  literary  or  poetic  culture.  And 
as  it  was  not  possible  for  intellect ual  habits  to  be  formed 
in  the  short  space  of  twelve  months,  the  young  girl 
naturally  slid  back  to  her  former  plane  of  life.  Tliis 
was  the  more  inevitable  as  their  pecuniary  circum- 
stances made  it  necessary  for  Mrs.  Z.  to  take  sole  charge 
of  her  little  one. 

Two  years  from  this  time  another  child  was  born  to 
them — a  girl  also ;  but  in  whom  Mrs.  Z.'s  mental  cali- 
bre was  represented,  while  her  fine  physical  traits  were 
omitted. 

With  the  more  all-engrossing  cares  of  the  young 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  51 

wife,  the  daily  life  of  herself  and  husband  grew  insen- 
sibly apart.  And  now  a  new  personage  appeared  on  the 
scene — a  lady  of  a  brilliant,  comprehensive,  and  highly 
cultivated  mind,  to  which  was  added  a  keen  and  com- 
prehensive interest  in  the  most  important  reform  move- 
ment of  the  day,  for  which  Mr.  Z.  had  signally  failed 
to  enlist  his  wife's  sympathy. 

Now  it  was  but  natural  that  Mrs.  Z.,  observing  the 
eagerness  with  which  her  husband  became  engrossed 
in  conversation  with  his  guest,  argument  following  argu- 
ment, constant  reference  made  at  breakfast,  dinner, 
supper  to  events  and  personages  of  which  she  was 
wholly  ignorant,  should  grow  uncomfortable,  depressed, 
jealous.  The  talented  lady  was  oblivious  to  the  im- 
pression she  was  making,  but  she  -had  too  noble  a  nat- 
ure to  willingly  make  trouble  between  man  and  wife. 

The  new  year  came,  and  the  fascinating  guest  de- 
parted. The  husband,  reviewing  the  past  months, 
charged  himself  with  gross  neglect  of  his  wife,  and 
sought,  by  the  most  delicate  and  considerate  attention, 
to  atone  for  his  neglect.  Mrs.  Z.  was  now  Hearing  her 
twentieth  year,  and  was  enciente  with  her  third  chilct 
She  was  overjoyed  to  have  her  husband  all  to  herself 
again,  and  expressed  that  satisfaction  in  responding 
passionately  to  the  almost  nightly  embrace.  In  due 
time  a  son  was  born — a  handsome  animal  he  proved  to 
be.  "  What  a  pity  that  excellent  people  like  the  Z.'s 


52  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

should  be  cursed  with  so  vile  a  son ! "  was  the  common 
remark  when  the  young  man's  reputation  as  a  libertine 
had  become  fully  established. 

ILL    EFFECTS   OF   MORAL   COWARDICE. 

The  common,  ideal  woman  is  a  weak,  disingenuous, 
cowardly  creature.  She  has  no  earnest  convictions,  no 
purpose,  no  sincerities  within  her.  Happily,  this 
worthless  ideal  is  breaking  up,  or  is  treasured  only  by 
weak-kneed  clerks  in  city  stores,  and  lads  still  in  their 
teens.  Eosa  Hosmer  had  a  dozen  of  this  kind  calling 
on  her..  Tlieir  self-love  was  gratified  by  the  slight  con- 
trast between  their  weak-mindedness  and  hers.  The 
vanity  of  an  obtuse,  illiterate  man  is  piqued  by  the 
superiority  of  a  woman,  while  a  large-natured,  chiv- 
alrous man  feels  honored  in  her  regard.  "How 
weak-minded  must  a  woman  be  to  meet  with  your 
approbation!"  said  a  lady  in  a  stage  coach  of  some 
fellow-passengers  who  were  inveighing  against  strong- 
minded  women.  They  looked  at  one  another  perplexed, 
and  slightly  ashamed  of  the  absurdity  of  their  position, 
and  one  of  the  number  who  recovered  his  senses  be- 
fore the  others,  replied :  "  I  believe  you've  got  the  best 
of  us,  ma'am.  I  guess  none  of  us  would  want  a  par 
ticularly  silly  wife." 

I  met  once,  in  New  York,  ^  young  man  of  very  re- 
markable acquirements,  with  great  decision  of  charactei 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  53 

and  large  self-osteem.  "  If  I  ever  marry,5'  he  remarked, 
"  my  wife  will  always  have  to  yield  implicit  obedience 
to  my  commands,  or  there  will  be  open  warfare  in  the 
•  house." 

u  Your  children  will  be  a  stalwart  set,  then,"  I  re- 
plied, "  with  their  mother  a  mere  mush  of  concession." 

He  did  not  see  what  she  had  to  do  with  it.  The 
children  would  be  his  children,  and  being  his,  would  do 
him  credit.  He  was  not  wanting  in  clear  reasoning 
powers,  and  having  great  family  pride — pride  of  race, 
I  should  say — after  considerable  argument,  was  honest 
enough  to  admit  that  there  must  be  truth  on  my  side. 

TJNIMPRESSIBILITY. 

There  are  some  cold,  narrow,  positive  women  so  im- 
pervious to  the  influence  of  others,  so  insensitive  that 
the  husband,  if  he  is  superior,  can  hardly  ever  repre- 
sent himself  in  his  children. 

I  arn  acquainted  with  a  gentleman  conspicuous  among 
his  fellows  for  grace  of  soul  and  nobility  of  nature. 
He  has  the  tenderness  of  a  woman  combined  with  mas- 
culine heroism.  Of  his  six  children  not  one  equals 
the  father.  The  mother,  self-willed  and  external  in  char- 
acter (though,  of  course,  violently  opposed  to  woman's 
rights  and  strong-minded  women),  had  children  much 
alike,  and  all  like  he/self .  A  very  faulty,  but  sympa- 
thetic woman,  has  often  finer  children  than  those  frig- 


54  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

idly  virtuous   mothers  who   are  never  stirred  to  the 
depths  by  any  event  or  consideration. 

An  artist  of  no  mean  powers  took  to  wife  a  gentle, 
characterless  girl.  He  did  not  wish  his  wife  to  be  in- 
tellectual, and  decidedly  she  was  not.  They  had  chil- 
dren "  fast,"  and  it  was  not  long  before  her  amiability 
changed  to  fretfulness.  She  flung  all  her  cares  on  her 
husband,  had  a  doctor  in  the  house  continually,  and  at 
thirty  was  a  faded,  complaining,  old  woman.  At  thirty- 
four  her  seventh  child  was  laid  in  her  arms.  The 
father,  despairing  of  the  others,  stuck  a  paint  brush  in 
the  tiny  fist  of  the  latest  born,  and  vowed  he  should 
be  a  painter.  In  vain, — this  son,  it  is  true,  dabbled  in 
paints,  but  had  no  more  genius  than  the  others,  not- 
withstanding that  he  was  a  seventh  child. 

ASKING   FOR   MONEY. 

Mrs.  Myrtle  was  a  lovely  young  woman,  lovely  in 
mind  and  body,  but  for  one  defect — viz.,  a  want  of 
firmness  and  self-esteem.  She  was  surrounded  by  all 
the  comforts  and  elegancies  that  wealth  could  procure, 
and  was  yet  the  abject  slave  of  a  gentlemanly  tyrant. 
She  could  not  receive  or  pay  visits,  go  shopping,  or  to 
a  matinee  without  first  obtaining  permission  from  her 
master.  And  she  was  always  giving  an  account  of  her- 
self in  a  pacificatory  manner.  When  she  suffered 
humiliation,  she  blamed  her  husband,  and  not  the  stand- 


THROUGH    THE    MOTHER.  55 

ard  she  had  given  him.  Mrs.  M.  had  three  boys,  and 
they  were  the  most  inveterate  liars.  How  could  it  be 
otherwise,  when  their  mother  spent  half  her  time  in 
eluding  inspection,  and  half  in  making  confession, 
while  she  regularly  searched  Mr.  M.'s  pockets  for  coins 
that  could  be  spent  without  explaining  "  what  for.'' 

I  could  draw  another  picture  where  the  husband,  as 
soon  as  his  means  permitted,  placed  money  in  the  bank 
in  his  wife's  name,  that  she  might  feel  the  interest  was 
more  really  hers  to  spend  as  she  pleased  without  any 
sense  of  obligation. 

REPRESSED    EXTERNAL    ACTIVITIES. 

A  very  remarkably  superior  woman,  but  without 
quick,  external  perceptive  faculties  to  give  her  insight 
into  character,  mistook  a  handsome,  unprincipled  brute 
for  a  man  and  gentleman.  What  she  endured  for  six 
months  after  her  marriage  could  not  be  written.  When 
she  found  herself  enciente,  for  the  sake  of  the  child 
she  sought  refuge  with  an  humble  friend  at  a  distance 
from  her  unhappy  home.  Being  pinched  for  means, 
she  earned  money  by  her  needle,  endeavoring,  at  the 
same  time,  to  banish  from  her  memory  the  recollection 
of  her  late  cruel  experience. 

Day  after  day  this  regal  woman  sat  sewing  with 
Elizabeth  Browning's  poems  open  on  a  chair  beside  her 


56  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

committing  to  memory  the  most  interior  of  those  re- 
ligious strains  as  she  stitched,  stitched  in  the  solitude 
of  the  low-roofed  cottage  by  the  river.  No  exhilarat- 
ing rides  on  horseback,  such  as  had  been  her  wont,  no 
genial,  social  company,  no  brisk  walks  and  happy 
communion  with  nature,  were  possible  in  her  peculiar 
circumstances.  She  must  forego  the  healthy,  harmoni- 
ous, external  life  of  her  past,  and  live  solely  within  the 
inmost  chambers  of  her  soul. 

At  two  years  old  the  little  girl  born  of  these  unto- 
ward conditions  was  lovely,  large-eyed,  thoughtful, 
considerate,  and  tender  in  her  ways  as  any  lady. 
"  Where  are  your  wings,  Mary  ?  "  said  a  gentleman  who 
noticed  the  radiant  face  at  the  mother's  garden  gate. 
For  these  seemed  only  necessary  to  prove  her  a  seraph. 

Alas  1  to  her  mother's  infinite  sorrow,  she  very  soon 
departed  to  more  blissful  realms.  The  constantly  re- 
pressed emotions  of  her  mother,  and  her  sedentary  life, 
had  caused  an  imperfect  action  of  the  lungs,  and  a  low 
vital  tone  generally.  Grief  shortens  the  breathing  as 
joy  expands  the  lungs.  Little  Mary  was  extremely 
narrow-chested,  with  sloping  shoulders,  and  hence  quite 
unable  to  supply  sufficient  sustenance  for  so  very  large  a 
brain,  whose  weight  she  bent  under,  and  died,  shortly 
after  completing  her  second  year,  of  acute  Irydroce- 
phalus. 


THROUGH  THE  MOTHER.  57 

BEAUTY. 

Beauty  of  form  and  feature  should  not  be,  as  it  is 
now,  exceptional.  It  should  be  the  rule.  And  there 
will  come  a  time  when  parents  will  be  held  as  much  re- 
sponsible for  an  ill-favored,  ungainly  child,  as  they  are 
beginning  to  be  for  their  dishonest  or  vicious  children. 

The  English  nobility  are  celebrated  the  world  over 
for  personal  beauty  and  elegant  manners.  What  cause 
or  causes  lie  back  of  this  significant  fact  ? 

So  far  as  manners  are  concerned,  we  know  that  they 
are  the  result  of  generations  of  culture,  confirmed  by 
generations  of  use.  They  suppose  leisure  and  good 
manners  for  company,  as  Emerson  has  suggested. 
The  bustle  and  hurry  of  the  work-a-day-world  afford  no 
room  for  polished  manners,  and  only  when  co-opera- 
tion shall  have  taken  the  place  of  our  present  wasteful 
and  cruel  competition,  shall  we  have  time  for  graceful 
living.  Hard  labor  and  worry  will  in  time  wear  out 
the  most  charming  and  inbred  politaness. 

With  regard  to  the  personal  beauty  of  the  class  al- 
luded to,  let  us  turn  to  its  past — the  past  of  this  heredi- 
tary nobility.  The  blood  which  held  courage,  self- 
respect,  and  the  ability  to  control  others,  deserved  in  a 
sense  the  deference  and  admiration  it  commanded. 
Then,  as  these  qualities,  in  themselves  and  their  retro- 
active effects,  favored  the  production  of  the  more  mas- 


58  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER    • 

online  and  striking  forms  of  beauty,  that  type  was 
repeated  through  successive  generations  until  in  the 
later  times  it  has  been  modified  by  the  increasing  def- 
erence to  human  rights,  and  refined  by  intellectual  and 
moral  culture.  The  hereditary  transmission  of  superior 
personal  traits  was  the  more  certain  because  the  wife  of 
the  lord  was  a  lady,  and  the  wife  of  the  duke  a  duchess, 
and  as  lady  and  duchess,  they  believed  that  the  very 
marrow  in  their  bones  excelled  in  worth  that  of  every 
man  and  woman  ranking  below  them  in  the  social  scale. 
And  this  saved  them  from  the  belittling  consciousness 
so  debasing  to  their  children,  that,  as  women,  they  were 
inferior  to  men. 

We  have  learned  in  these  days  that  blood  runs  out 
as  well  as  in  (on  the  very  principle  I  am  seeking  to 
prove),  and  the  nobleman  and  woman  of  genius  appear 
quite  as  often  outside  the  charmed  circle  of  hereditary 
distinction  as  within  it.  Still,  the  law  is  inflexible,  and 
never  evaded.  Beauty  is  not  born  of  cowardice,  sub- 
serviency, or  grief.  The  more  culture,  the  more  th& 
blood  is  worked  over,  the  finer  the  types,  provided  we 
grow  more  related  to  humanity,  and  less  to  a  class. 

Pure,  unselfish  love  is  in  very  fact  the  mother  of 
beauty,  as  happiness  is  the  mother  of  song.  And  what 
can  awaken  gladness  in  a  wife  so  certainly  as  the  ever- 
watchful  kindness  of  her  husband  ? 


THROUGH  THE  MOTHER.  59 


DAISY  B- 


I  was  at  one  time  intimate  with  a  couple  who  were 
noticeably  plain  and  angular  in  appearance.  He,  from 
ill-health,  had  an  irritable  disposition.  She  was  easily 
excited.  But  they  were  truly  mated,  and  whatever  of 
these  peculiarities  appeared  in  society,  they  disappeared 
before  the  door-step  of  the  home  was  reached.  A  per- 
fect confidence  existed  between  them,  and  the  unvary- 
ing respect  and  courtesy  shown  by  the  husband  toward 
his  wife  did  honor  to  them  both. 

It  was  a  late  marriage,  and  one  daughter  alone  came 
to  bless  them.  A  child  lovely  from  her  birth,  bearing 
scarce  any  resemblance  to  either  parent.  A  delicate, 
oval  face,  creamy  complexion,  soft,  intelligent  black 
eyes,  a  sweet  mouth,  and  a  shower  of  golden  curls ; 
not  an  angle  about  her,  simply  a  beauty  from  baby- 
hood to  womanhood. 

"  You  think  it  unaccountable,"  said  the  father  to  me, 
"  that  my  wife  and  I,  who  are  both  so  plain,  should  have 
so  pretty  a  child  as  Daisy.  But  I  have  studied  it  out, 
and  I  settle  it  this  way.  My  great-grandmother  was 
a  famous  beauty  and  a  noted  belle  in  her  day,  and  it  is 
IWT  features  that  have  cropped  out  in  Daisy." 

"  And  let  me  tell  you,"  I  answered,  with  equally  im- 
pressive gesture  of  the  forefinger.  "  Let  me  tell  you 
that  both  of  your  'great-grandmothers  might  have  been 


60  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

as  handsome  as  the  Venus  de  Medici  and  the  Venus  of 
Milo  in  one,  but  if  you  had  not  bestow  ed  the  most 
chivalrous  attention  on  your  excellent  wife  while  she 
was  bearing  Daisy — if  you  had  not  made  her  so  thor- 
oughly happy  by  your  loving  words  and  thoughtful 
care,  there  would  have  been  no  cropping  out  of  beauty 
in  the  little  daughter.  Sweet  and  lovely  thoughts  re. 
solve  themselves  into  symmetry  of  form  and  face. 
Mental  and  physical  traits  do  undoubtedly  reappear  in 
the  same  family  after  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  but 
never  without  the  right  conditions  for  their  re- incarna- 
tion. You  may  take  at  least  half  the  credit  of  Daisy's 
good  looks  to  yourself,  and  the  other  half  belongs  to 
her  good  mother." 

MINISTERS'  CHILDREN. 

There  is  a  common  proverb  which  says  that  ministers' 
children  are  worse  than  other  people's.  We  shall  not 
inquire  into  the  case,  but  we  would  suggest  that  there  is 
no  power  without  freedom,  and  no  deep  sentiment  witt 
out  solitude,  and  the  minister's  wife  can  enjoy  neither 
freedom  nor  solitude  where  the  parishioners  provide  the 
salary ;  for  she  is  considered  the  property  of  the  par- 
ish— her  words  and  actions  are  forever  criticised.  She 
must  conciliate  the  easily  offended,  steer  (dear  oi  church 
factions,  abstain  from  downrightness  of  speech.  The 
dangers  of  her.  situation  are  permanently  impressed 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  61 

upon  her,  for  is  not  the  bread  they  eat  dependent  on 
unanimity  of  opinion  in  the  society  respecting  their 
worth?  If  she  can  think  her  own  thoughts,  she  cer- 
tainly must  not  express  them.  If  she  has  any  doubt 
concerning  any  part  of  the  creed,  she  must  force  it 
back  and  make  believe  that  the  strait-jacket  is  as  easy 
as  a  knitted  shirt. 

Children  born  amid  these  petty  oppressions  are  not 
likely  to  be  patterns  of  perfection.  Then  they  are  not 
allowed  to  be  bad  like  other  children,  and  to  get,  by 
degrees,  rid  of  their  inharmony.  If  they  break  win- 
dows or  punch  noses,  they  are  considered  fearfully  de- 
praved, and  to  reflect  on  the  father.  So  they  learn  to 
consult  appearances,  arid  give  up  the  only  experience 
that  would  make  men  of  them.  Too  much  catechism 
and  formal  prayer  during  their  early  years  must  give  a 
disgust  for  the  solemnities,  and  create  a  distrust  of 
earnest  living  and  thinking,  integrity  and  sincerity. 
Just  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  irrationality  of  tho 
creed,  are  the  chances  for  damaging  the  characters  of 
the  minister's  children. 

*r 

Love  of  Truth  expands  the  soul; 
Fear  of  Evil  cramps  it. 

The  most  unproductive  use  one  can  put  one's  mind 
and  heart  to,  is  hatred  of  evil,  of  meanness,  falsehood, 
ugliness  in  others.  It  does  not  even  prove  that  we 


62  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

possess  the  opposite  virtues.  Especially  if  we  would 
convey  to  our  children  generosity,  ingenuousness,  and 
beauty,  let  our  hearts  be  filled  with  admiration  of  these 
divine  qualities.  As  I  have  shown,  we  reproduce  that 
which  most  impresses  us.  If  it  is  ugliness,  and  we  hate 
it,  still  we  reproduce  it,  because  we  have  dwelt  on  it. 
Do  not  then,  when  enciente,  permit  yourself  to  analyze 
or  dislike  imperfections  of  either  mind  or  body,  for  this 
puts  the  unborn  en  rapport  with  that  imperfection. 

4 

VALUE    OF   TEMPORARY    EFFORT. 

It  certainly  ought  to  encourage  any  mother  to  know, 
that  no  matter  what  her  particular  faults  may  be,  she 
can  lessen  if  not  obliterate  them  in  her  child,  by  mak- 
ing a  great  effort  in  the  right  direction  for  so  short  a 
period  as  nine  or  even  six  months. 

That  she  should  make  herself  over  entirely  would 
appear  a  too  formidable  undertaking,  but  with  such  a 
motive  she  could  aid  her  child.  She  may  have,  for 
instance,  a  quick  temper,  which  she  will  determine  to 
control ;  or  she  may  lack  order,  or  a  good  memory ;  or 
she  may  be  wanting  in  quiet  self-esteem  (though  she 
have  inward  self-respect).  Either  of  these  deficienees 
may  be  greatly  lessened. 

I  will  here  insert  a  letter  which  I  received  some  time 
ago  from  a  young  woman  who  had  become  greatly  in- 
terested in  the  subject  before  us,  and  who  wa£  remark- 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  63 

ably  wanting  in  what  the  phrenologist  calls  "  concen- 
trativeness,"  and  also  in  consecutiveness  of  thought : 

"  You  know  what  a  day-dreamer  I  have  always  been. 
This  has  helped  to  confirm  my  '  scatterbrains '  tendency. 
At  first  it  did  not  seem  to  me  reasonable  that  intentional 
activity  in  any  direction  could  have  the  desired  effect.  If 
circumstance  outside  of  one's  self  aroused  in  a  woman  one 
or  another  set  of  faculties,  naturally  enough  they  might  be 
prominent  in  the  child.  But  this  going  to  work  with  mal- 
ice prepense,  I  feared  would  avail  but  little.  However,  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  give  my  child  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt. 

"Every  day  I  obliged  myself  to  explain  certain  problems 
in  geometry.  This  would  favor  continuity  of  thought.  I 
decided.  Then  I  began  to  recall  continually  the  ideas  that 
just  flitted  into  my  mind  and  out  again.  They  would  re- 
turn, and  I  would  dwell  a  little  more  on  them — see  other 
sides  to  them  ;  the  connection  in  which  they  stood  to 
some  other  idea.  Then,  after  a  little  I  felt  tired,  and  let 
them*  go,  but  still  held  my  mind  in  readiness  for  their  re- 
turn. It  really  both  amused  and  astonished  me  to  see 
them  come  trooping  back.  Why,  thought  is  a  series  of 
pictures!  I  exclaimed.  It  is  all  illustration.  The  '  fetch- 
.  ing  myself  up  standing '  in  this  way  was  rather  hard  work 
the  first  two  months,  but  it  became  easier,  and  I  grew  tc 
enjoy  my  own  improvement  wonderfully.  Of  course  there 
were  interruptions  and  discouragements,  but  I  held  on 
bravely,  and  I  am  sure  successfully,  for  Walter,  at  three 
years  old,  would  fix  his  mind  on  a  person  or  a  picture  in  a 
book,  and  keep  his  attention  on  it  to  the  amusement  of 


64:  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

all  observers ;  and  now  if  you  tell  him  to  make  his  slato 
full  of  figures,  he  pegs  away  at  it  till  there  is  not  room  for 
one  more." 

MUSICAL    ABILITY. 

During  the  winter  which  followed  the  summer  of 
their  union  the  X.'s  became  members  of  a  coterie,  with 
which  dancing  was  held  in  high  esteem.  Mrs.  X.  was 
enciente,  but  showed  her  condition  scarcely  at  all,  and 
so  danced,  and  afterward  played  for  the  dancers  at  the 
hebdomadal  reunions,  up  to  within  a  month  of  her 
confinement. 

She  had  left  school  with  fair  musical  powers  fairly 
cultivated,  and  with  a  voice  sweet,  but  not  powerful. 
The  lover  who  had  praised  her  singing,  when  her  hus- 
band, spoke  in  thoughtless,  disparaging  strain  of  its 
quality.  This  so  wounded  and  discouraged  her  that  no 
inducement  could  make  her  open  her  lips  again.  But, 
as  I  have  said,  she  continued  to  play  on  the  piano-forte, 
more  or  less  on  each  occasion,  "  dance  music  "  already 
at  her  fingers'  ends,  and  short,  easy,  gay  compositionr 
with  which  she  was  familiar  before  leaving  school,  and 
which  needed  no  notes  as  reminders.  At  home  she 
read  and  studied  no  new  music,  or  music  of  a  higher 
character.  This  was  partly  because  her  musical  taste 
was  uncultivated,  and  partly  because  the  new  draft  on 
her  energy  was  attended  by  depression,  and  she  felt 
justified  in  yielding  to  her  feelings,  and  dropping  alJ 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  65 

mental  and  bodily  effort.  "  I  will  be  more  studious, 
more  orderly  and  hospitable  after  babj  is  born.  But 
now  I  shall  drop  everything — let  things  slide." 

The  boy  born  of  these  ante-natal  circumstances  re- 
sembled his  father  in  his  coarser  mental  calibre,  while 
lie  lacked  the  ambition  and  steady  purpose  which  char-^ 
acterized  the  latter.  He,  however,  took  to  the  keys  of 
the  piano  as  a  duck  takes  to  water.  When  a  lad,  his  fin- 
gers grasped  the  chords  and  flew  swiftly  through  the 
scales.  This  endless  series  of  polkas,  schottisches,  and 
cotilions  wearied  the  entire  household.  He  hated 
classical  music,  and  cared  little  for  vocal  melody  or 
harmony. 

Two  years  after  the  birth  of  this  boy,  a  younger  sister 
of  Mrs.  X.  made  them  a  visit  of  some  months'  duration, 
and  she  insisted  that  Clara  should  take  part  with  her 
in  duets,  notwithstanding  that  her  unused  voice  and 
pregnant  state  promised  little  success  from  the  effort. 
As  soon  as  Mr.  X.  was  quite  out  of  sight  on  the  way  to 
his  business  (for  the  old  criticism  still  rankled  in  her 
mind,  and  the  mutual  performance  was  kept  a  secret 
from  him),  the  two  would  be  at  the  instrument  with 
Mendelssohn,  Wallace,  and  others  before  them,  making 
delicious  harmony.  There  is  nothing  like  singing  to 
free  the  soul,  and  awaken  its  heights  and  depths. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  fortunate  for  little 
Clara,  who  made  her  entry  into  the  .world  before  her 


66  VARIATION    OF   CHARACTER 

aunt's  departure,  than  the  antecedent  occupation  of  her 
mother.  In  time  her  voice  proved  to  be  as  sweet  and 
far  stronger  than  her  mother's,  and  in  all  her  nature 
she  realized  the  inspiring  effect  of  those  hours  when 
persuaded  by  her  sister,  her  mother  had  lost  siglit  of 
herself  in  the  pure  emotions  and  thoughts  of  those 
famous  masters. 

GRIEF. 

The  cause  of  grief  very  seriously  affects  its  character. 
If  it  is  based  on  a  sense  of  wrong,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
husband's  unfaithfulness,  then  indignation,  anger, 
malice  make  a  part  of  it,  and  a  pregnant  wife,  dis- 
tracted by  these  emotions,  .conveys  to  her  child,  as  we 
have  shown,  the  violent  emotions  she  herself  experi- 
enced. 

If  the  bad,  the  unprincipled  conduct  of  a  son  from 
whom  we  had  expected  reverence  and  manliness  bowf 
us  down,  a  sense  of  wrong  and  shame,  a  feeling  that  it 
might  have  been  avoided,  mixes  with  our  grief  and  em- 
bitters it. 

But  if  death,  from  natural  causes,  which  no  woman's 
eye  could  foresee  and  provide  against,  strikes  down  one 
near  and  dear  to  us,  we  simply  mourn,  and  this  grief 
may  open  the  inner  chambers  of  the  soul  hitherto  closed. 

Thus  Mrs.  W.,  an  external,  worldly-minded  woman, 
not  wanting  in  common  benevolence  or  sense  of  duty, 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  67 

simply  without  dignity  or  elevation  of  character,  was 
married  to  an  energetic,  sensible,  practical  man,  the 
manager  and  owner  of  a  large  foundry.  Their  circum- 
stances were,  therefore,  quite  easy.  An  inferior  kind 
of  social  life  occupied  much  of  Mrs.  W.'s  time,  and 
amid  these  conditions  their  first  child,  a  girl,  was  born. 
This  child,  on  the  principle  that  inferior  fruit  ripens 
early,  was  as  mature  as  she  would  ever  be  at  sixteen. 
At  twenty  she  was  shallow,  pretentious,  illiterate, 
which  last  her  mother  was  not. 

When  five  months  pregnant  with  her  second  child, 
the  news  was  suddenly  brought  to  Mrs.  W.  that  her 
husband,  whom  business  had  called  several  hundred 
miles  from  his  home,  had  been  stricken  down  with 
yellow  fever,  and,  among  total  strangers,  had  passed 
away,  in  his  delirium  calling  wildly  on  his  wife  for 
help.  The  loss  made  a  more  profound  impression  on 
Mrs.  W.  than  it  would  have  done  had  she  not  been 
pregnant.  She  had  accepted  Mr.  W.  from  sentiments 
Df  gratitude,  and  now  she  was  moved  to  make  a  strict 
self-examination  as  to  her  imperfect  appreciation  of  hia 
love  and  kindness.  Worldly  motives  and  thoughts  were 
silenced.  Conscience  and  finer  judgment  were  active. 
The  second  child,  modified  by  these  four  grave,  ear- 
nest months,  was  made  up  of  sincerity,  earnest  thought, 
and  unfailing  benevolence.  Her  early  disregard  for 
.  appearances,  as  compared  to  realities,  made  a  wide  gulf 


68  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

that  could  never  be  bridged  between  the  two  sisters 
There  was  absolutely  no  relationship  between  them. 
Marian's  plain,  honest,  eager,  affectionate  face  was 
grand  beside  the  empty,  pretty  one  of  her  elder  sister. 
The  younger  was  slow  in  developing  her  whole  nature, 
which  was  transcendent  in  its  interior  moral  character- 
istics. The  blow  came  too  late  to  seriously  injure  the 
physical.  There  was  just  the  unavoidably  less  degree 
of  robustness  between  herself  and  sister,  which,  with 
the  absence  of  hope  and  common  gayety,  favored  grav- 
ity in  the  former. 

THE   BLACK   SHEEP. 

The  black  sheep  of  a  family  is  to  be  pitied  rather 
than  hated.  He  is  the  wronged,  as  well  as  the  wrong- 
doer. Many  years  ago  such  an  one  came  frequently 
under  my  observation.  The  family  consisted  of  five 
boys  and  three  girls,  all  but  the  one  in  question  re- 
markably good-looking,  gen  tie -hearted,  fairly  intelli 
gent,  thoroughly  temperate,  and  honest.  The  third, 
in  order,  of  the  boys,  was  a  coarse,  brutal,  unprincipled 
fellow,  the  dread  and  despair  of  his  timid  mother, 
whose  money,  and  even  clothing,  he  would  steal  (the 
latter  to  pawn),  arid  whose  life  he  would  constantly 
threaten  when  a  mere  lad.  He  was  at  home  only  in  a 
groggery,  and  that  not  so  much  on  account  of  a  love  of 
liquor,  as  from,  his  need  of  companions  on  his  own 
plane.  He  was  more  than  once  in  prison ;  of  tener 


THROUGH    THE    MOTHER.  69 

escaped  through,  the  prayers  and  management  of  his 
mother.  Who,  now,  was  responsible  for  this  danger- 
ous member  of  society  ? 

The  father  was  an  amiable,  inefficient,  illiterate,  tem- 
perate man  ;  a  waster  of  other  people's  time  ;  an  inter- 
minable talker  of  nothings.  The  mother,  an  amiable, 
industrious,  capable  woman,  who  patched  and  knitted 
and  made  a  few  dollars  by  nursing,  at  the  call  of  the 
village  doctor — a  most  tender  and  devoted  mother,  a 
too  generous  neighbor.  Passing  the  unfinished  habita- 
tion one  day,  I  stopped  to  admire  the  double  holly- 
hocks and  breathe  the  perfume  from  the  beds  of  herbs. 
At  the  same  moment  I  heard  a  loud  cry  for  help,  and 
the  old  lady  came  hurriedly  round  the  corner  of  the 
house,  followed  by  her  son,  with  a  hoe  in  his  hand  up- 
raised to  strike  her.  Seeing  me,  he  flung  the  hoe  aside 
and  walked  sullenly  out  of  the  gate.  Sitting  on  the 
doorstep  wiping  her  tears  away  with  the  corner  of  hei 
apron,  the  unhappy  woman  apologized  for  her  evil  son 
in  this  wise : 

"  We  were  always  poor,  living  from  hand  to  mouth. 
My  husband  never  had  any  faculty  for  making  a  living 
I  strove  and  strove  to  keep  my  children  from  want,  and 
keep  them  looking  decent.  There  were  now  six  of 
them,  and  I  was  nearly  distracted  when  I  found  I  was 
going  to  have  another.  At  this  point,  late  in  the  fall, 
my  husband  went  off  and  stayed  four  months  with  a 


70  VARIATIDN    OF    CHARACTER 

well-to-do  uncle  of  his,  leaving  me  and  the  six  childrar 
without  food,  or  fire- wood.  I  had  endured  all  patiently 
till  then,  hut  this  made  me  full  of  bitterness  and  anger. 
I  was  just  raving — quite  beside  myself  all  the  time. 
A  neighbor  helped  me,  and  trusted  me  a  little,  so  that 
we  kept  from  starving ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  me 
from  feeling  indignation,  almost  hatred,  toward  a 
father  who  could  be  so  unfatherly.  Thomas  showed 
the  same  disposition  from  a  child." 


Here  is  a  counterpart  to  the  preceding  narrative. 

We  had  gone  to  visit  an  invalid  friend  who  himself 
had  climbed  these  mountain  heights  to  escape  the  fogs 
below  on  the  sea-shore.  Here,  cosily  sheltered  by  the 
summit,  surrounded  by  peach  and  cherry-trees,  and 
looking  down  on  wooded  heights  and  gorges,  we  found 
a  most  excellent  hotel.  The  host,  a  mild,  intelligent 
man,  was  himself  quite  delicate  ;  his  wife,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  one  of  those  rarely  met  with,  magnetic,  gen- 
erous-natured  women,  whose  coming  affects  one  like 
the  ocean  breezes.  She  had,  so  she^told  us,  nine  chil- 
dren living  and  one  dead.  Only  such  a  brave,  boun- 
teous creature  could  have  been  equal  to  this,  and  never 
in  one  instance  bring  reproach  on  her  motherhood.  It 
is  of  the  tenth  I  would  speak,  now  a  lad  of  sixteen, 
observing  whom  the  invalid  remarked  :  "  I  shall  get 


THROUGH    THE   MOTHER.  1 

well  just  looking -at  that  boy.  What  a  manly,  affec- 
tionate fellow ! " 

"  I  call  hi  1.11  my  consolation,"  said  his  mother. 
"  He  can  do  anything,  and  he  does  it  so  easily,  so 
quietly."  And,  indeed,  the  way  in  which  this  refined 
lad  handed  you  your  plate,  your  glass  of  milk,  or  cup 
of  coffee,  gave  a  dignity  to  the  meal,  while  conferring 
honor  on  all  parties  concerned.  The  phrase  "  menial 
labor "  had  no  significance  when  he  was  basting  the 
meat  or  ironing  the  "  belated "  table  -  cloths  for  his 
mother. 

Usually,  when  a  woman  in  very  straitened  circum- 
stances has  an  extremely  large  family,  she  presently 
becom.es  oppressed  and  discouraged.  Her  ambition  is 
foiled.  She  can  neither  clothe,  educate,  nor  train  the 
children  properly,  and  the  latest  comers  are  apt  to  have 
a  poorer  make-up — a  fag-end  sort  of  air.  Here,  on  the 
contrary,  was  the  flower  of  the  flock,  a  youth  full  of 
faculty,  at  home  on  the  piano-forte  stool  as  at  the 
knife-board,  determined  to  sustain  his  mother  at  all 
hazards. 

I  sought  eagerly  the  explanation  of  this  phenomenon, 
and  the  happy  mother  in  full,  varied,  and  affectionate 
tones,  gladly  replied  to  my  inquiries. 

"  When  I  found  myself  pregnant  with  my  tenth 
child,  the  nine  were  living  and  all  at  home.  My  hus- 
band's salary — he  was  a  preacher — was  between  three 


72  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

and  four  hundred  dollars  a  year.  Fortunately,  we 
owned  the  little  place  on  which  we  lived,  and  yet,  if 
you  will  recall  those  Eastern  winters,  you  will  realize 
the  great  difficulty  I  had  in  keeping  us  all  clothed  as 
well  as  fed.  It  seemed  to  me  not  a  virtue,  but  a  sin,  to 
bring  more  children  into  the  world,  and  I  made  up  my 
mind  that  this  should  be  the  very  last.  I  would  take 
matters  into  my  own  hands. 

"  But  the  thing  now  to  be  thought  of  was  a  little 
clothing  for  the  expected  baby.  I  had  not  a  rag  to 
make  over,  not  a  dollar  for  the  purpose. 

u  At  this  juncture  a  gentleman,  an  agent  for  some  re- 
ligious publication  house,  called,  and  as  the  custom  was, 
I  asked  him  to  spend  the  day,  which  he  did,  and  I  had 
considerable  talk  with  him.  He  left,  and  returned 
while  I  was  preparing  supper,  and  seemed  greatly  sur- 
prised to  find  that  I  had  no  help.  4  What !  nine  chil- 
dren to  cook  and  sew  for,  and  no  help ! '  He  had  never 
supposed  such  a  thing  possible.  I  explained  that  I  had 
a  primitive  constitution,  but  still  I  found  myself  giv- 
ing way  lately.  Whenever  1  had  a  trifle  ready  to  pay 
out,  which  was  very  seldom,  I  employed,  it  was  true,  a 
woman  poorer  than  myself,  but  less  burdened,  to  do 
the  washing.  His  astonishment,  however,  continued. 

"  A  week  or  two  after  this  visit,  I  received  a  letter 
from  a  distant  city,  saying  that  my  case  had  made  a 
profound  impression  on  him,  and  that  having  met 


THROUGH    THE    MOTIIEK.  73 

a  coterie  of  ladies  belonging  to  a  certain  congregation 
who  were  anxious  to  assist  some  missionary,  or  help  in 
some  other  good  cause,  he  had  mentioned  me  and  my 
circumstances,  and  they  were  of  one  mind,  eager  to 
lielp  me,  and  wished  to  know  if  I  would  accept  a  pres- 
ent in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  offered  ;  and  if  so, 
would  I  indicate  what  things  would  be  most  useful 
to  me. 

"  I  was  glad,  and  willing  to  accept  anything,  and  in 
replying  mentioned  infants'  wear  and  children's  clothes 
as  most  needed. 

"  In  return  came  a  large  box  with  every  sort  of 
child's  garments,  a  roll  of  flannel,  and  a  complete  in- 
fant's wardrobe  of  the  nicest  material  and  most  beau- 
tifully made  —  embroidered  flannel?,  dresses  prettily 
tucked  and  edged — things  lovely  to  look  at. 

u  An  immense  load  was  taken  off  my  mind.  I  was 
actually  filled  with  delight  whenever  I  thought  of  these 
delicate,  pretty  things,  and  how  comfortable  my  baby 
would  be.  I  went  about  my  tasks  after  this  in  a  spirit 
of  love  and  thanksgiving.  You  see  Paul !  He  has 
been  my  consolation  since  his  babyhood.  No  tempta- 
tion could  make  him  less  positively  good,  less  conscien- 
tious, or  less  affectionate  than  he  is." 

As  this  large-hearted  woman  related  to  me  these  in- 
teresting facts,  I  could  not  help  wishing  that  the  kind 
adics  who  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  about  so 


4:  VARIATION    OF    CHARACTER 

happy  a  result,  as  well  as  the  gentleman  who  had  given 
the  impetus  to  their  benevolence,  could  know  how  valu 
able  had  been  the  effects. 

KLEPTOMANIA. 

The  word  kleptomania  is  used  to  indicate  the  habit 
of  stealing,  by  those  persons  with  whom  wealth  pre- 
cludes the  ordinary  temptation  to  the  act.  Certain 
women  of  position  are  regularly  watched  by  clerks  in 
stores  because  they  are  known  to  carry  off  laces,  rib- 
bons, etc.,  when  they  fancy  themselves  unobserved. 
Such  women  have  very  inferior  minds  independent  oi 
this  one  vice.  In  the  mother  of  such  an  one  the  desiro 
to  get  and  to  keep  things  of  material  value,  must  have 
been  exceedingly  prominent.  Many  an  honest  mother 
mourns  over  the  unscrupulous  dishonesty  of  her  son, 
while  all  unwittingly  she  conveyed  to  him  the  over- 
powering impulse ;  or  there  was  not  rigid  probity 
enough  in  her  own  life  to  overrule  the  dishonest  tend- 
ency conveyed  by  her  husband. 

In  the  first  case,  her  desire  to  get  and  to  keep  would 
be  harmless  and  justifiable  as  a  temporary  state  of 
mind,  if  she  were  not  pregnant.  She  knows,  although 
she  does  not  often  dwell  on  the  fact,  that  she  is  work- 
ing assiduously  for  legitimate  ends.  But  as  she  is,  in 
truth,  mainly  engrossed  in  getting  and  saving,  thus 
using  a  very  limited  part  of  her  mind,  she  does  the 


THROUGH    THE    MOTHER.  75 

harm.  The  selfish,  grasping  spirit  increases  on  itself 
through  generations  of  similar  experience.  On  the 
same  principle,  the  remarkable  singer  is  the  product  of 
two  or  three  generations  of  love  of  song. 

A  childish  inclination  to  appropriate  that  which  be- 
longs to  another,  yields  readily  to  wise  treatment,  where 
the  intellect,  the  nature,  is  not  cramped  and  dull. 

SPECULATIVE   INTELLECT. 

The  habit  of  reasoning  independently,  of  investiga- 
ting without  reference  to  authority,  is  by  no  means  a 
common  one.  Most  people  have  their  thinking  done 
for  them,  and  are  content  to  quote  their  clergyman, 
their  doctor,  or  their  great-grandmother,  as  the  case 
may  require.  We  say  a  man  or  woman  is  "  original " 
when  they  seek  Truth  wherever  she  may  be  found,  re- 
gardless of  popular  opinion. 

My  friend,  though  quite  practical,  loved  dearly  to 
wander  in  the  higher  regions  of  thought.  Such  an  one 
is  apt  to  suffer  for  the  want  of  sympathy,  and  situated 
as  she  was  in  an  obscure  inland  town,  where  living  lit- 
erature was  unappreciated  and  congenial  companion- 
ship did  not  exist,  her  first  year  of  married  life  was  not 
all  that  she  had  anticipated.  Her  husband  was  "  all 
business,"  but  he  wanted  his  wife  to  be  happy,  and  he 
induced  her  to  send  for  an  old  schoolmate  "  for  com- 
pnny." 


76  VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

After  Miss  "Wood's  arrival  there  was  no  time  for 
morbid  regrets  or  dissatisfaction.  She  brought  a  year's 
later  news  of  the  old  circle  of  friends,  was  full  of 
piquant  personal  reminiscence,  could  discuss  the  merits 
of  the  latest  noteworthy  literature,  and  entered  heartily 
into  the  political  reform  movements  of  England  and 
Italy.  The  days  were  now  only  too  short  for  the  du- 
ties and  sympathy  that  had  to  be  crowded  into  them. 

After  the  birth  of  Mrs.  Roche's  first  child  her  friend 
married,  and  moved  on  to  a  farm  some  miles  away. 
Mrs.  R.  had  more  domestic  occupation,  but  a  close 
communication  was  kept  up.  Then  the  anti-slavery 
agitation  was  beginning  to  be  felt  all  over  the  country, 
and  Mr.  R.,  to  his  wife's  great  delight,  flung  himself 
with  all  his  compact  executive  energy  into  it.  During 
this  period  another  child,  a  girl,  was  born.  Suddenly 
and  unexpectedly  business  losses  occurred,  which  obliged 
a  removal  to  a  new  place. 

"  It  so  happened,"  said  Mrs.  R.,  referring  long  years 
later  to  the  marked  difference  in  her  children,  "  that 
the  months  before  Cecil's  birth,  I  met  with  no  book  or 
person  that  appealed  to  me,  and  I  was  always  so  help- 
lessly dependent  on  outside  influences  when  I  was  en- 
ciente.  The  dear  boy,  in  his  early  youth,  gave  evidence 
of  the  absence  of  the  speculative  intellect.  He  hates 
discussion  and  theories  of  every  sort.  Philosophy  is 
his  abomination.  The  day  is  good  enough  for  him 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHER.  77 

without  analysis.  He  likes  a  fine  poem,  and  adores 
Ruskin,  and  his  order  and  system  make  him  invaluable 
to  his  father.  But  in  comprehensiveness,  in  capacity 
for  ideas,  he  ranks  far  below  his  brother  and  his  sister." 

INTEMPERANCE, 

In  the  preceding  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  show 
what  manner  of -living  favors  the  transmission  of  noble 
and  beautiful  qualities  from  mother  to  child ;  what 
conditions  tend  to  produce  unbalanced,  vicious,  un- 
lovely character.  I  have  dwelt  principally  on  the 
moral  aspects  of  maternity,  because  that  is  the  side 
hitherto  overlooked.  But  I  can  not  close  without  say- 
ing a  word  respecting  the  baleful  influence  of  intoxi- 
cating drinks. 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  desire  for  alco- 
holic drinks  is  inherited,  and  all  degrees  of  mental  dull- 
ness and  incapacity,  from  one  grade  below  the  parental 
endowment,  to  idiocy,  may  be  distinctly  referred  to 
habits  of  intoxication. 

We  have  seen  that  the  abnormal  sensibility  of  a 
pregnant  woman  insures  large  effects  (on  the  child) 
from  small  causes.  Thus  a  joy  is  absorbed  by  the 
young  life  that  the  mother  outgrows ;  and  depression 
that  was  but  temporary  with  her,  leaves  its  mark  on 
the  temperament  and  disposition  of  her  offspring. 

Thus  the  habit  of  taking  just  a  drop  to  sustain  your 


VARIATION   OF   CHARACTER 

fainting  spirits  during  the  day,  and  a  glass  of  something 
hot  at  night,  added,  most  likely,  to  the  father's  moder- 
ate drinking,  gives  the  child  an  uncontrollable  passion 
for  stimulants.  Now,  the  life  you  live  may  be  all  that 
is  desirable,  but  if  your  brain  is  put  under  this  influence 
occasionally',  all  the  good  is  weakened,  vitiated,  under- 
mined. Alcohol  breaks  down  the  WILL,  and  what  is  a 
human  being  without  a  will  ?  A  vacillating,  unreliable 
creature.  It  deadens  the  mental  sensibilities  and  arouses 
the  passions. 

Friends  will  often  advise  a  pregnant  woman  to  drink 
beer  or  spirits,  assuming  that  nature  at  such  times  re- 
quires it.  Now,  nature  is  equal  to  her  own  emergen- 
cies, and  pregnancy  is  not  a  disease.  The  brooding 
mother  needs  plenty  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air,  abun- 
dant sleep,  moderate  exercise,  wholesome  food,  and 
congenial  surroundings.  Let  her  listen  to  no  one  who 
prescribes  a  stimulant  which  holds  disease  in  itself. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  intemperance  in  eating,  and 
I  would  counsel  any  woman  to  demand  of  herself  a 
perfect  self-control  at  the  table.  Nothing  less  than 
this,  with  entire  abstinence  on  her  part,  will  suffice  to 
neutralize  in  most  cases  the  desire  for  liquor,  communi- 
cated, in  so  many  cases,  by  the  father ;  and  the  firm- 
ness exercised  by  her  in  denying  the  appetite,  will  give 
her  child  the  firmness  to  resist  the  temptation  to  drink. 
Without  this  will  in  the  matter,  the  inclination  would 


THROUGH   THE   MOTHEE.  79 

be  communicated  and  not  the  power  to  resist,  as,  for 
instance,  if  she  merely  abstained  because  she  could  not 
obtain  what  she  longed  for. 

The  Germans  sodden  their  brains  with  lager-beer ; 
the  English  brutify  themselves  on  gin  and  porter.  We 
ruin. soul,  body,  and  worldly  prospects  on  adulterated 
whisky. 

.Our  husbands  and  fathers  license  thousands  of  grog- 
geries,  corner  groceries,  saloons,  that  they  may  be  free 
to  indulge  out  of  sight  of  home.  In  this  way  they  pre- 
pare places  wherein  their  sons  may  be  initiated  into 
-  vice.  Thus  the  crop  of  drunkards  never  fails  in  village, 
town,  or  city,  nor  the  supply  of  criminals,  large  and 
Bmall,  made  criminals  by  these  means  provided. 

The  "  deficient  "  child  and  the  predestined  drunkard, 
are  cradled  as  softly  as  are  the  children  of  temperance. 
The  mother  handing  her  babe  round  for  the  admiration 
of  her  neighbors,  is  shaken  by  no  prevision  of  what  it 
will  one  day  become.  Her  fair,  rosy-cheeked  boy  des- 
tined to  be  the  inmate  of  an  inebriate  asylum  ?  She 
will  not  believe  it.  Yet  only  obedience  to  the  higher 
law  on  her  part  will  have  saved  him  from  it. 

CONCLUSION. 

It  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  in  these  modem 
days  that  nothing  is  to  be  had  without  paying  the  full 
price.  The  more  valuable  the  thing  desired,  the  great- 


80      VARIATION  OF  CHARACTER  THROUGH  THE  MOTHER. 

er  the  price  to  be  paid.  Tlius  the  satisfactions  and  joys 
of  parentage  can  only  be  had  by  the  study  of,  and  obe- 
dience to,  natural  and  spiritual  law,  at  the  cost  of  much 
effort,  self-denial,  and  self-control.  (Self-indulgence 
and  indifference  do  not  produce  fine  offspring). 

It  has  also  been  proved,  to  the  simplest  observation, 
that  woman  has  the  large  balance  of  power  in  the 
formation  of  character,  and  it  is  for  her  to  assume  the 
responsibility.  Genius  is  dependent  on  a  combination 
of  influences  outside  our  control,  but  good  sense,  integ- 
rity, generosity,  and  chastity  take  their  growth  from 
thoughts,  emotions,  and  acts,  over  which  we  have  con- 
trol to  a  very  great  extent.  Let  women  take  courage, 
The  larger  their  responsibility,  the  nobler  their  reward. 


^  /  I.  -7 


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